According to the vaccine manufacturers, preliminary laboratory investigations suggest that three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine neutralize the Omicron variation (B.1.1.529 lineage), while two doses exhibit drastically lower neutralization titers.

‘Pfizer and BioNTech share updates on the Omicron version,’ the businesses said in a joint statement released on Wednesday.

“Although two doses of the vaccine may still offer protection against severe disease caused by the Omicron strain, it’s clear from these preliminary data that protection is improved with the third dose of our vaccine,” said Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer.

“Ensuring as many people as possible are fully vaccinated with the first two-dose series and a booster remains the best course of action to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”

“Our preliminary, first dataset indicates that a third dose could still offer a sufficient level of protection from the disease of any severity caused by the Omicron variant,” stated Ugur Sahin, co-founder of BioNTech.

“Broad vaccination and booster campaigns around the world could help us to better protect people everywhere and to get through the winter season. We continue to work on an adapted vaccine which, we believe, will help to induce a high level of protection against Omicron-induced COVID-19 disease as well as prolonged protection compared to the current vaccine”, he said.

The firms stated that they would continue to collect more laboratory data as well as evaluate real-world effectiveness in order to assess and confirm Omicron protection and determine the most successful path forward.

The companies began developing an Omicron-specific COVID-19 vaccine on November 25, 2021. If a vaccine adaptation is required to boost the amount and duration of protection against Omicron, the development will proceed as anticipated.

The Omicron variant, which was first discovered in South Africa, has already been confirmed in over 40 countries, including Nigeria, despite the fact that no deaths have been reported worldwide.

Many countries, notably the UK, the US, and European nations, have imposed travel restrictions on African countries, a move that has been widely criticized as discriminatory.