LONDON (Reuters) – People being hospitalised with COVID-19 in the United Kingdom are broadly showing less severe symptoms than before, Britain’s vaccine minister said on Tuesday.

“At the moment, if you look at the people who have been hospitalised, they are going in with less severe conditions than before,” Minister for Vaccines and Public Health Maggie Throup told Sky News.

“The numbers that are in hospital beds is about half what it was a year ago – and that just shows the power of the vaccine.”

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kate Holton)