A medical worker prepares to administer a vaccination against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as Israel continues its national vaccination drive, during a third national COVID lockdown, in Ashdod, Israel January 4, 2021. REUTERS/Amir Cohen.

A team of researchers from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva has found that the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is seven times less effective against the South African variant of the disease, Israel’s Channel 13 reported.

The study, published on Monday by the scientific journal Cell Host & Microbe, examined British, South African, and other mutated variants of the virus.

Lead researcher Dr. Ran Taube of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Genetics at BGU, said, “Our findings show that the effectiveness of the vaccine against the South African strain is less — although it still exists.”

While the study did find that the Pfizer vaccine provided less protection against the British and especially the South African variants, it noted that the vaccine was nonetheless effective at boosting immunity to the virus to a substantial degree.

In particular, the team found that the level of antibodies and ability to protect against infection were 11 times higher among those who were vaccinated than those who recovered from the virus without being vaccinated.

The study used blood samples taken from recovered patients and people who had received the Pfizer vaccine. The vaccinated subjects had blood taken 21 days after the first vaccine dose and ten days after the second.