<span style="color: #222222;">A study conducted by Israel's largest healthcare provider Clalit in collaboration with Tel Aviv University has found that coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa can break through the Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine to some extent.<br />'' <br />'' </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The study claimed that the South African coronavirus variant B.1.351 managed to penetrate the protection offered by two doses of Pfizer's vaccine to some degree. However, the study could not determine the amount of efficacy lost during the process.<br />''</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The research compared nearly 400 people who tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks or more after they received one or two doses of the vaccine, against the same number of unvaccinated patients with the disease.<br />''</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The study found that the South African variant was found to make up about 1 percent of all the COVID-19 cases across all the people studied.<br />''</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">However, among patients who had received two doses of the vaccine, the variant's prevalence rate was eight times higher than those unvaccinated.<br />''</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Some previous studies have also indicated that the Pfizer-BioNTech shot was less potent against the South African variant of the coronavirus, but still offered a robust defence.</span><br />