KOBE: A research team of Kobe University has confirmed that a booster vaccine dose is effective in increasing neutralizing antibodies that inactivate the highly contagious omicron variant of the novel coronavirus.

This is the first research finding announced in Japan that indicates the effectiveness of a third vaccine shot against omicron.

The research covered 65 doctors at Kobe University in their 20s to 60s who received a booster dose of US drug giant Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine in early December last year.

Of the doctors, the proportion of those with neutralizing antibodies against omicron stood at 5 percent six months after they received a second vaccine dose.

In two weeks to a month after the doctors received a booster shot, the antibody prevalence rate jumped to 100 percent, the team said on Tuesday. The amount of antibodies soared 64-fold on average following the third vaccination.

“We had not expected all (of the surveyed doctors) to acquire neutralizing antibodies against omicron, so we were surprised,” Yasuko Mori, professor at Kobe University’s Graduate School of Medicine who specializes in virology, told a press conference.

JIJI Press