You can get 88% protection against hospitalisation from infection by the Omicron COVID-19 variant if you are vaccinated with a booster dose, a new study shows.
The recent finding were published in UK Health Security Agency (UKSHA) report.
The vaccine effectiveness drops to 52% against Omicron around six months after taking the second shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, pointed out Eric Topol, professor of molecular medicine, and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in the US. However, a booster dose substantially increases immunity and lowers the odds of being hospitalised with COVID-19 infection.
"That's a big boost of protection for 3rd dose vaccine vs hospitalisation from Omicron infection. Vaccine effectiveness increased from 52 per cent (due to 2-dose waning after 6 months) to 88 per cent after the 3rd dose," Topol tweeted on Sunday.
"It's pretty impressive that vaccines directed to the ancestral strain spike from 2 years ago, with the virus that's evolved through more than 290 million confirmed cases, and now to the hyper-mutated Omicron, have preserved efficacy of near 90 per cent vs severe disease with a 3rd shot," he said in another tweet.
How the study was conducted:
Two studies which examined the association between two COVID variant (Omicron and Delta) and vaccination status and risk of hospitalisation were cited in the UKHSA report.
The first study was based on approximately half a million Omicron cases from all age group, while the second one used a smaller dataset and is restricted to ages 18 and over.
The first study confirms the previous finding of reduced overall risk of hospitalisation for Omicron compared to Delta variant.
Both the studies found a substantial reduction in risk of hospitalisation for Omicron cases after three doses of vaccine compared to those who are unvaccinated.
Despite the estimated reduction in hospitalisation risk and preserved vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation, the study authors noted that there may still be large numbers of admissions to hospital.
The risk of hospital admission from emergency departments with Omicron was approximately one-third of that for Delta.
(With inputs from agencies)
