Corona vaccinations have prevented about 88,000 hospital admissions in more than a year. This is apparent from an initial estimate that the National Institute for Health and Environment announced on Monday. RIVM analyzed the period between 2 August 2021 and 30 August 2022.
To calculate how many hospital admissions have been prevented, RIVM used data on the actual number of hospital admissions of people with a corona infection. These figures are kept by the National Intensive Care Evaluation Foundation (NICE). In addition, RIVM looked at the estimated vaccine effectiveness per day and at the vaccination coverage for the various injections.
Based on these data, RIVM estimates that the vaccinations prevented 87,676 hospital admissions in thirteen months. For the most part, 78 percent, this concerns people aged sixty and older. But it has also had an effect for younger people: in the group 12 to 49 years, there are 7,568 prevented admissions.
More occurrences than actual shots
In the same thirteen months, the NICE Foundation registered a total of 44,731 hospital admissions with COVID-19. This means that without vaccinations, the number of corona admissions would have tripled. Also in 2020, when the corona crisis reached its peak, about 40,000 people with a corona infection ended up in hospital. Normally, around 3 million people admitted to hospital.
RIVM emphasizes that this is a first and “cautious” estimate. Because the institute has not included the indirect effects of corona vaccinations in this analysis, it expects an even higher number of prevented hospital admissions. “Vaccinated people are less likely to infect others. As a result, fewer people have become ill who might otherwise have ended up in hospital.”
In addition to preventing hospital admissions, corona vaccinations have even more advantages: because hospital beds remained empty, less other care had to be postponed. The number of hospital admissions without vaccinations could also have risen so high that additional measures would have been necessary, according to the RIVM. In addition, the vaccination has also prevented deaths.