The people not vaccinated against Covid-19, compared to those vaccinated, run a risk of up to 6 times higher of death and up to 4 times higher of hospitalization in intensive care. This is what emerges from the extended report of the Higher Institute of Health on the trend of Covid-19 in Italy. “The age-standardized mortality rate, relative to the population aged 12 years or older, in the period 1-31 July – we read – for the unvaccinated (35.1 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants) is about two and a half times higher than vaccinated with a full cycle of 120 days or less (14.8 deaths / 100,000) and about 6 higher than vaccinated with additional dose / booster (5.7 deaths / 100,000) “.
As for hospitalizations, “the age-standardized hospitalization rate for the population aged 12 years or older, in the period 8 July-7 August, for the unvaccinated (137.2 hospitalizations per 100,000 inhabitants) is almost double compared to vaccinated with a full cycle of 120 days or less (78.9 admissions / 100,000) and almost 4 times higher than vaccinated with additional dose / booster (36.6 admissions / 100,000) “. In the same period, “the rate of admissions to intensive care according to age, relative to the population aged 12 years or older, for the unvaccinated (5.1 admissions to intensive care per 100,000 inhabitants) was double that of vaccinated with full cycle of 120 days or less (2.5 hospitalizations / 100,000) and almost 4 times higher than vaccinated with additional dose / booster (1.4 hospitalizations / 100,000) “, reads the extended report.
The vaccine efficacy (percentage reduction in risk in vaccinated versus unvaccinated) in the Omicron prevalence period (starting from January 3, 2022) for booster vaccinates is 45% in preventing Sars-CoV infection. 2, and 84% in preventing cases of severe disease.
REINFECTIONS – In the last week, the percentage of reinfections out of the total Covid cases reported was stable compared to the previous week at 12.9%. In one year, from 24 August 2021 to 23 August 2022, around 1 million cases of reinfection were reported (1,003,331), informs the ISS, equal to 5.8% of the total cases notified in the same period.
LETHALITY RATE – The Higher Institute of Health explains that the lethality rate has dropped from the beginning of the pandemic to today. In June of this year, the indicator that allows us to measure it – that is the ‘Case fatality rate’ (Cfr), relating to the deaths of the population of diagnosed and notified cases – shows the point of arrival of this downward trend: the Cfr crude oil went “from 19.6% at the beginning of the pandemic to 0.1% in June 2022”, writes the ISS in the extended report.
The latest update of this report explains that in January 2021 the raw Cfr “was equal to 2.4%, while in January 2022 it was equal to 0.2%. The same decreasing trend was observed in correspondence with both the standardized Cfr compared to the European population than compared to the Italian population “, explains the ISS. “The high values observed in the first pandemic phase are probably also due to the reduced diagnostic capacity. As it is now well known, the average daily number of swabs performed went from 3,110 in February 2020 to 175,970 in August 2022 (with a maximum value of 983,681 average daily buffers in January 2022) “.
However, the ISS also notes that the values of the standardized CFR using as a reference “the European population, on average younger than the Italian population, are always lower than the values of the standardized CFR which has the Italian population as a reference”. In other words, the lethality rate calculated at the European level is lower than the data referring to the Italian population. “This – concludes the ISS – suggests that the differences with other European countries, in terms of lethality, are partly due to the age structure of the relatively older Italian population”.