Coronavirus UK news update – Cases and deaths will PLUNGE as 2nd Pfizer vaccine dose proven to boost protection hugely

CORONAVIRUS cases and deaths will plunge when Brits start receiving their second vaccine doses, new research suggests.

The already falling rates are expected to begin tumbling even faster after the first large-scale peer-reviewed study of the real-world effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine found a second dose dramatically boosted protection.

The study by Israel’s Clalit Research Institute was carried out in collaboration with researchers from Harvard University and published in the highly-respected New England Journal of Medicine earlier this week.

It found two Pfizer doses reduced symptomatic covid by a whopping 94% and severe illness by 92%, while one dose reduced symptomatic covid by 57% and severe disease by 62% three weeks after the jab was given. 

The news comes as Education Secretary Gavin Williamson stressed that schools could have a few days to get all their children back in as they would need to organise dishing out the coronavirus tests.

Secondary school kids are to be tested twice a week under fresh plans to get children back in the classroom from March 8 – with the first two done in schools.

Meanwhile, normal summer exams have been ditched and teachers will instead decide what results students get, with the help of voluntary “mini” subject tests.

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