About 80 percent of Corona intensive care patients not fully vaccinated

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Current figures provided by the Ministry of Health clearly show that booster vaccinations against Covid-19 work. Two out of three patients who had to be hospitalized with Covid-19 in a normal ward on Tuesday were not vaccinated or not sufficiently vaccinated. In intensive care units, an average of more than four out of every five affected are not fully immunized, or about 80 percent.

Proportion of vaccinated Covid patients in hospitals declining
The proportion of vaccinated Covid 19 patients in hospitals has declined since late November, when third sticks against coronavirus increased. As of Nov. 23, Covid intensive care units (ICUs) recorded a total of 584 critically ill patients. Of these, 428 were unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated, and 156 had a valid vaccination certificate. The percentage of fully immunized ICU patients was thus 26.7 percent.

On Tuesday, it was 21.3 percent. Of the 319 current severe Covid 19 cases, 251 are not fully immunized. In contrast, 68 have a valid vaccination certificate.

The effectiveness of vaccination is even more evident in normal wards, where the proportion of fully immunized cases has declined from 45.5 percent to 33.8 percent in six weeks. This means that currently two out of three hospitalized Covid patients with non-life-threatening illnesses have not been protected or have not been adequately protected against the disease.

Of the 711 affected people who needed a hospital bed on Tuesday, 471 were not fully vaccinated, while 240 had a valid vaccination certificate. As of Nov. 23, normal wards stopped at 2,584 covid patients, of whom 1,409 were not adequately immunized.

Given these data, it comes as no surprise that German virologist Christian Drosten also sees booster vaccination as the most effective weapon in the fight against the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus. “What really protects against Omicron is the triple vaccination,” the scientist from Berlin’s Charité hospital said Tuesday on the podcast “Coronavirus Update” on NDR-Info. Consequently, the strong focus on booster vaccinations in Germany is correct and important, he said.

Drosten referred to a study of the Imperial College London with status shortly before Christmas, after which with an Omicron infection the hospitalization risk is altogether around up to 30 per cent smaller than with the delta variant. For those vaccinated twice, the risk fell by 34 percent, and by as much as 63 percent for people with booster vaccines. In the unvaccinated, who are infected with the Omikron variant, this risk decreases by 24 percent, according to the study.

“No all-clear is in order”
In view of the “many unvaccinated people we unfortunately have in Germany,” this is indeed good news, Drosten said. However, the severity of the course of the disease is bound to vary and no all-clear signal should be given. In addition, the positive effect of booster vaccination is clearly evident here, he said: “The gain from not vaccinated to twice vaccinated is only ten percent more, but the gain from twice vaccinated to three times vaccinated is then almost a doubling.”

Given the rapid spread of Omicron, the virologist predicted that the variant would now rapidly “take over the business” and also dominate in Germany by the end of January. There, a doubling time of the Omicron infection figures of about four days is currently assumed.

Referring to previous observations that Omicron presumably caused milder disease courses, Drosten said, “I think it’s fair to say that’s the case by now.” Data collected indicated that a smaller proportion of those infected with Omicron infections needed to be hospitalized, he said.