Israeli study: South African variant can 'break through' Pfizer vaccine

A new Israeli study suggests that the South African Covid variant can “break through” the Pfizer vaccine.

Tel Aviv University researchers studied 400 people who tested positive for Covid-19 after being vaccinated at least two weeks previously and the same number of unvaccinated people with the virus.

The South African variant accounted for around 1 per cent of the cases studied.

But among patients who had received two doses of the vaccine, the variant's prevalence was eight times higher than among those unvaccinated - 5.4 per cent compared to 0.7 per cent.