1.01 percent of AstraZeneca vaccine recipients have caught covid

The vast majority of vaccine doses administered in Estonia have been Pfizer, but the highest number of cases caught after vaccination is among people who received AstraZeneca. However, this number is only 1.01 percent of the total.
Data from the Health Board (Terviseamet) shows a total of 741,548 people have been vaccinated in Estonia as of Monday afternoon, of whom 659,461 have completed the vaccination course.
This year, 80,276 people have been infected with the coronavirus. Five percent of people are in the process of being vaccinated - between doses - while 5 percent have completed it. Most people - 90 percent - who have caught the virus have not been vaccinated.
In total, 3,980 people, or 0.6 percent, have become infected with the coronavirus after vaccination.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has been used to fully vaccinate 435,713 people. Of these, 2,252 or 0.52 percent have later caught coronavirus.
Looking at the data for AstraZeneca, 116,940 people have received the vaccine, but 1,182 people, or 1.01 percent, have later become infected.
The number of people who received the one-shot Janssen vaccine is much lower at 46,347. Of these, 418 people, or 0.9 percent, have later caught covid-19. The vaccine is popular among young people.
For the 60,461 people who received Moderna, only 128 people have later tested positive for coronavirus which is 0.21 percent.
In Estonia, the AstraZeneca vaccine was mostly given to key workers, such as teachers and medical workers, who come into contact with lots of people every day and maybe tested more often. It was also given to the over 50s.
The graphs below show how many doses have been administered so far and to whom.
Agency of Medicines: Not practical to consider one vaccine better than another
Triin Suvi, head of the Department of Biological Preparations of the State Agency of Medicines, told ERR that generalizations about the effectiveness of the vaccine cannot be made only on the basis of data collected in Estonia.
"The efficiency of a vaccine is generally assessed in clinical trials. Subsequent analysis of real-life data is much more complex and assigning a numerical value to efficiency is less straightforward," she said.
Suvi said studies in other countries show that all vaccines are effective in combating the delta strain and especially in preventing severe infection and death.
"Data is constantly being added and we have to remember that for each new strain we have to talk again about the effectiveness of each vaccine. Therefore, it is not practical to consider one vaccine better than the others in today's changing world," Suvi said.
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Editor: Roberta Vaino, Helen Wright