ISS, July 9th 2021
If the prescribed doses are completed, the vaccine against COVID-19 is approximately 80% effective in protecting against infection and up to 100% effective against the more serious effects of the disease for all age groups. This is demonstrated by the data processed by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità – ISS (Italian National Institute of Health), by the National Vaccine Registry (AVM) and by the integrated surveillance of cases of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection reported in the period between 21 June and 4 July.
The vaccination status of infected, hospitalized and deceased individuals from Sars-Cov-2 was examined and vaccine efficacy was calculated separately for four age groups, 12-39, 40-59, 60-79 and over 80.
· With regard to infection, the complete course of vaccination has an effectiveness of between 79.8% and 81.5%, depending on the age group.
· For ordinary hospitalizations, effectiveness ranges from 91.0% to 97.4% with the highest values in the 40-59 age group.
· For admissions to intensive care, effectiveness is 100% in the two younger age groups (in fact no vaccinated individual from these two age groups were admitted to intensive care in the period considered) with a slight drop to 96.9% for individuals over 80.
· As regards deaths, effectiveness is again 100% for the two younger age groups, while it drops to 98.7% for the 60-79 age group (2 deaths among vaccinated individuals against 78 deaths among unvaccinated individuals), and to 97.2% among individuals over 80 (15 deaths among vaccinated and 62 among unvaccinated individuals).
"These data, which confirm the results of various international studies, show that the vaccines that are currently available are extremely effective in preventing severe forms of the disease if the vaccination program is completed, and they are quite effective in preventing infections”, comments the president of the ISS, Silvio Brusaferro. “It is therefore necessary to speed up the vaccination campaign as much as possible, while at the same
time maintaining social distancing and the protection measures indicated by the experts until sufficient coverage is achieved”.
