STEPHEN ADAMS: Don't panic! Vaccines are working just as expected

Many will be alarmed that despite being double-jabbed, Sajid Javid has tested positive for Covid-19.

The Health Secretary is by no means a rare case: GPs across the country are seeing increasing numbers of fully inoculated patients catching the virus.

In fact, more than 15,500 partly or fully vaccinated people a day are reporting Covid symptoms, according to the latest research.

That number has soared by about 40 per cent in a week, says the ZOE Covid Symptom Study, which uses an app downloaded by at least three million people to track the disease.

Astonishingly, ZOE data suggests the number of new cases in vaccinated people – called 'breakthrough' infections – is set to outstrip unvaccinated cases within days.

So what is going on? Thankfully, the message from scientists and clinicians this weekend is reassuring: a jump in cases among the jabbed was always expected and does not mean vaccines are failing. 

While highly effective against preventing hospitalisation and deaths, both the AstraZeneca and Pfizer jabs are markedly less effective at preventing any sign of infection. 

Put simply, the jabs are better at blunting the virus than snuffing it out completely.

Latest figures show two doses of AstraZeneca are 67 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic disease from the Indian – or Delta – variant that now accounts for almost all Covid cases in the UK, while two doses of Pfizer are 88 per cent effective.

In contrast, two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine cut the risk of hospitalisation by 92 per cent. The figure is 96 per cent for two doses of Pfizer.

Such figures are being borne out on the NHS front line: a growing number of vaccinated people are displaying symptoms – but most are not falling seriously ill.

'We are speaking to lots of Covid-positive patients who have had two vaccines,' Dr Richard Cook, a GP in Sussex, told Pulse magazine last week. 

'Anecdotally they do not seem to be getting too unwell, and I'm not aware of any of ours being in hospital.'

Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London, who leads the ZOE study, said: 'In the UK, new cases in vaccinated people are still going up and will soon outpace unvaccinated cases. 

'This is probably because we're running out of unvaccinated susceptible people to infect as more and more people get the vaccine.

'While the figures look worrying, it's important to highlight that vaccines have massively reduced severe infections and post-vaccination Covid is a much milder disease for most people.'

NHS vaccination figures back up Prof Spector's analysis – the pool of totally unvaccinated adults has shrunk from 20 million three months ago to seven million now. 

Meanwhile, the number of double-jabbed people has risen from ten million to 35.7 million.

Dr Raghib Ali, a senior clinical research associate in epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, said: 'Inevitably, some people who are vaccinated will get infected. That's clear.'

Mr Javid is not the first prominent individual to catch Covid despite being double-jabbed. 

Last month BBC journalist Andrew Marr, who had had the Pfizer jab, revealed he caught the virus while covering the G7 summit in Cornwall.

He said yesterday the infection had been 'really, really horrid', adding: 'Even if you're double-vaccinated, you don't have superpowers – you can still get ill.'

When Marr asked Oxford University's Covid expert Professor Sir Peter Horby in late June if he had simply been 'unlucky', the scientist agreed – but said as vaccination levels rose 'the majority of infections' would be in those jabbed.

'That doesn't mean the vaccines don't work – breakthroughs are expected,' Prof Horby added. 

'What we want to do is prevent hospitalisations and deaths, and the vaccines do that very effectively.'

Sajid Javid 'held lengthy meeting with Boris Johnson in Downing Street' just hours before double-jabbed Health Secretary, 51, tested positive for Covid amid warnings 'half the Cabinet will be in isolation by the end of the week'

By Chris Pleasance, Mark Duell and Joe Davies for MailOnline 

Fears of a Downing Street 'pingdemic' swirled tonight after Sajid Javid tested positive for Covid - with one insider warning that 'half the Cabinet' could be in isolation by the end of the week.

The 51-year-old Health Secretary revealed his diagnosis on Saturday morning after 'feeling groggy' on Friday evening, tweeting that he was suffering 'mild' symptoms and had been double vaccinated. 

Test and trace rules mean that anyone who has come into close contact with Mr Javid could now be forced into a 10-day self isolation, as it was claimed Boris Johnson held a 'lengthy' meeting with Sajid in Downing Street just hours before his symptoms developed.

Photos showed the Health Secretary leaving No.10 on Friday as a source told The Independent that the pair held face-to-face talks, meaning the Prime Minister could soon join hundreds of thousands of Britons in being confirmed to his home.

Several Cabinet ministers and protection staff could also find themselves 'pinged' by the NHS Test and Trace app once Mr Javid's diagnosis is confirmed by a PCR test. He was initially diagnosed using a rapid lateral flow test.

Mr Javid was in the Commons Monday to announce Freedom Day plans to parliament, and on Tuesday visited a care home in south London and held more meetings with ministers.

'I don't see how half the Cabinet doesn't end up in isolation by the end of the week,' one government source told The Telegraph.

The potential disruption in Downing Street underlines the chaos facing Britons as most Covid rules are dropped next week when it is expected cases will soar - potentially pushing millions of people per week into self-isolation.

Rules will be relaxed allowing double-vaccinated people, such as government ministers, to avoid the isolation period but will only come into effect on August 16.  

Mr Javid had his first Oxford-AstraZeneca jab on March 17 and was given a follow up dose on May 16.

Scientists have always said vaccines are not 100 per cent effective at preventing Covid transmission — the main purpose of jabs is to reduce severe illness and prevent death.

He tested positive for the virus on a rapid lateral

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