This is evident from the latest vaccine effectiveness figures, which RIVM made public on Wednesday. The figures mean that booster shots protect 97 percent against hospitalization and 98 percent against admission to intensive care, according to the RIVM experts. ‘Ordinary’ complete vaccination protects 85 percent against hospitalization, and 93 percent against IC admission, the figures show.
The booster thus increases the protection against hospital admission by 12 percentage points (from 85 to 97 percent) and the protection against admission to intensive care by 5 percentage points (from 93 to 98). It should be noted that in recent months there have been few or no patients with the omikron variant in hospital. That wave – as far as it comes from – is not expected until next week, when the high infection rates of recent times start to translate to hospital patients.
Noticeably younger
In the past month and a half, a total of 11 thousand corona patients ended up in hospital. Of those, 53 percent were unvaccinated, 42 percent vaccinated and 1.5 percent boosted. A total of 1,807 corona patients were admitted to intensive care. Roughly two-thirds of them had not been vaccinated. One in three had been vaccinated and only half a percent had just been boosted, the newly released figures show.
Unvaccinated corona patients in hospital are also noticeably younger. Three quarters of all unvaccinated patients who ended up in hospital because of corona in the past month and a half are under the age of 70. In intensive care this is even 82 percent. The majority of those vaccinated who end up in hospital are in their seventies and eighties. Of the 161 boosted patients admitted to hospital, eight in ten have passed 70.
Overall, the chance of hospitalization for people who have had the booster shot is five times smaller than for people who have simply had the vaccines, the epidemiologists calculate. It is striking in the figures that the proportion of boosted hospital patients does increase: half a percent in December, 5 percent in the first weeks of January. This is because there are more and more boosted people walking around, according to the RIVM.
92 percent protection
The big question now is to what extent boosters protect against the newcomer, omikron. According to a British analysis published last Friday, one of the first on the subject, the booster shot provides about 92 percent protection against hospitalization after contamination with the omikron variant. In those who received their last regular jab more than six months ago, that protection is only 44 percent, according to the British.
It is striking that the different types of vaccines in the Netherlands hardly show any differences in effectiveness. All the vaccines administered here, without the booster, protect about 90 percent against hospitalization and about 95 percent against admission to the intensive care unit.