After the emergence of the Omicron variant, the rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States was 10.5 times higher in unvaccinated adults and 2.5 times higher in those who were vaccinated but received no booster than in booster recipients, according to a new study.

And in a second large study during the Omicron period, older people, men, and residents of nursing homes or in low-income areas were most at risk for post-booster COVID-19 death in England, but the risk was very low.

Boosters tied to much lower hospitalization rate

In the first study, a team led by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers analyzed data on 192,509 hospitalizations from more than 250 hospitals in 13 states participating in the COVID-19–Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network from Jan 1, 2021, to Apr 30, 2022. The research was published yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Monthly COVID-19 hospitalization rates were 3.5 to 17.7 times higher in unvaccinated patients than in their vaccinated counterparts, regardless of whether they had received a booster. Hospitalization rates were 10.5 times higher in the unvaccinated and 2.5 times higher in vaccinated patients with no booster than in booster recipients.

Relative to unvaccinated hospitalized patients, hospitalized vaccinees were more likely to be older (median age, 70 vs 58 years) and to have at least three underlying conditions (77.8% vs 51.6%).

"The high hospitalization rates in unvaccinated compared with vaccinated persons with and without a booster dose underscores the importance of COVID-19 vaccinations in preventing hospitalizations and suggests that increasing vaccination coverage, including booster dose coverage, can prevent hospitalizations, serious illness, and death," the researchers wrote.

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