An Israeli healthcare provider said on Wednesday that Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine was 95% effective in a trial of 602,000 people, reinforcing the drug’s effectiveness findings.
Maccabi Healthcare Services, which covers more than a quarter of all Israelis, said in a statement that only 608 people tested positive for COVID-19 more than a week after receiving the second of two required doses from Pfizer.
The comparison was against a group of 528,000 Israelis with similar backgrounds who did not receive the vaccine, said Maccabi. Of these, 20,621 were positive.
“Comparing the proportion of new cases between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups, the vaccine’s effectiveness in Israel is currently estimated at 95%, seven or more days after receiving the second dose,” said Maccabi.
Most of the 608 infected vaccinees reported only mild symptoms, such as a headache or cough, Maccabi said. About 21 required hospitalization, seven of whom had severe symptoms, he added.
The Maccabi data reinforces the effectiveness findings of Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, which, after a final stage test, also found that its vaccine was 95% effective.
Nearly 44% of Israel’s 9.1 million citizens received at least one injection of the Pfizer vaccine, making the country the largest real-world study of its effectiveness.
On Wednesday, Clalit, Israel’s largest healthcare provider, reported a 94% drop in symptomatic COVID-19 cases among 600,000 people who received both doses of Pfizer.