New analysis by Britain’s health experts concludes for the first time this week that two doses of Covid-19 vaccines are “highly effective” against hospitalisation from the Delta variant the B1.617.2 extremely transmissible variant first identified in India.

Public Health England (PHE), which has been conducting regular analysis of Covid-19 variants of concern (VOC), said on Monday that the latest analysis shows that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 96 per cent effective against hospitalisation after two doses and the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is 92 per cent effective against hospitalisation after two doses.