Serrana, a Brazilian city of 45,000 has seen a 95 percent drop in COVID-19 deaths, as almost all adults were vaccinated as part of an experiment and there have been no new cases since.
According to BBC the team said those who although not vaccinated were protected from reduced virus circulation. The data suggest that the pandemic can be controlled after 75 percent of people are fully vaccinated.
The experiment in Serrana, in the southeastern state of Sao Paulo, was conducted between February and April by the Instituto Butantan. The city was divided into four zones to help determine the threshold to contain the virus. The team said this was achieved after three areas, or about 75 percent of the population over the age of 18, were given both doses.
When 95 percent of adults were fully vaccinated, they said the results showed that deaths fell by 95 percent, hospitalizations fell by 86 percent and symptomatic cases fell by 80 percent.
Brazil has been hit hard by the pandemic, with nearly 463,000 deaths and over 16.6 million infected. The country is struggling with a slow vaccination campaign due to insufficient injections, while the average daily deaths and cases remain high amid a lack of coordinated measures to curb infections.
The Serrana experiment was the first of its kind in the world. There were no reports of severe vaccine side effects and no coronavirus-related deaths among those vaccinated 14 days after receiving the second dose.
