Covid risk low in inoculated health staff: Study
Vaccines against the coronavirus disease protect against severe disease and death, shows a study by Christian Medical College, Vellore, that found 9.6% of completely vaccinated health care workers contracted the viral infection as against 27.2% unvaccinated.
Of those who did get the infection after completing a 14-day period following both doses of the vaccine, only 0.9% were hospitalised as compared to 4% among those who were unvaccinated. Among the completely vaccinated, only 0.06% needed oxygen therapy and 0.03% had to be admitted to ICU. In comparison, 0.7% of the unvaccinated needed oxygen therapy and 0.5% needed ICU care.
“Vaccines are working well! Good against infection (in healthcare=high transmission), great against severe disease...” vaccine expert and professor of microbiology
at the institute Dr Gagandeep Kang said in a tweet.
The incidence of infection among the fully vaccinated health care workers is higher than what has been reported in other hospitals from India and abroad. While Chandigarh’s Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research reported 1.6% infections in fully vaccinated individuals, Delhi’s Indraprastha Apollo hospital reported a figure of 2.62%.
According to the CMC study yet to be published, a study of 23,324 health care workers from the UK showed 3.8% got infected among those vaccinated and 38% among the unvaccinated.
However, a study from a Delhi hospital that has been treating only Covid-19 patients for over a year saw an 11% infection rate in vaccinated health care workers. The researchers attribute the higher rate of infection was likely a function of exposure to the virus among health care workers and the severe surge of cases with the Alpha and Delta variants in April and May.
“We realise that future waves can at best be prevented or at worst mitigated through aggressive and widespread vaccination,” the Cmc-vellore study concluded.
“No vaccine is 100% effective, but several studies have shown that the vaccines offer close to 100% protection against severe disease and deaths...,” said Dr GC Khilnani, chairman of PSRI Institute of pulmonary and critical care and former head of the department of pulmonology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
“What the CMC study shows is that the number of infections was higher among those who had received just one dose in comparison to those who got both the doses. So, the previous thought that one dose of Covishield can offer sufficient immunity is not true,” he added.