A new study led by Oxford University and the Office for National Statistics has found that two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine remains the best way to protect people from the Delta variant.
The research analysed two and a half million test results from 743,526 participants in the UK, and found that both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca jab offer similar levels of high protection after four to five months, although Pfizer is initially more effective.
The data on Moderna remains "insufficient", but researchers said that it is "almost certainly at least as good as the others".
However, the study found that fully vaccinated people who do become infected with the Delta variant have similar levels of the virus to those who are unvaccinated, meaning that they are still likely to be able to spread the virus.
"Both of these vaccines are still doing very well against Delta," said Professor Sarah Walker at the University of Oxford.
On the topic of double vaccinated people still being able to transmit the virus, she added: "We don't yet know how much transmission can happen from people who get COVID-19 after being vaccinated.
"For example, they may have high levels of virus for shorter periods of time. They definitely have the potential to transmit as much.
"But the fact that they can have high levels of virus suggests that people who aren't yet vaccinated may not be as protected from the Delta variant as we hoped.
"This means it is essential for as many people as possible to get vaccinated - both in the UK and worldwide."
According to UK government data, more than 41 million people have now received their second vaccine in the UK.
In terms of cases, there 219,350 positive tests over the past seven days, while there were 688 deaths. In the same timeframe, 5,809 people were admitted to hospital.
With the Delta variant still prevalent in the UK, Medical Diagnosis continue to offer a variety of COVID-19 tests, a vital service as life returns to normal.
Dr George Xynopoulos is the founder and CEO at Medical Diagnosis, having established the business back in 2006.
