Astrazeneca Vaccine 79 Percent Effective, Company Says

The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is 79 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19; 100 percent effective against severe disease and hospitalization, and it has no increased blood clot risk, the company reported on Monday.

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The latest data from  U.S. clinical trial on more than 32,000 volunteers indicates that there is "no increased risk of thrombosis or events characterized by thrombosis among the 21,583 participants receiving at least one dose of the vaccine." Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is an extremely rare blood clot in the brain.

The clinical trial was also conducted in Chile and Peru. AstraZeneca's executives aim to apply for emergency use authorization in the U.S. by the first half of April. The trial also demonstrated that in patients 65 years and older, vaccine efficacy was 80 percent.

On March 19, the U.K. Prime Minister Boris Jonhson received the AstraZeneca vaccine jab in a move to support the COVID-19 vaccine amid an international controversy over safety concerns. Last week, the European Medicines Agency also confirmed the vaccine poses no additional risk, although it did not discard a link between the vaccine and blood clots formation.