Unvaccinated More Likely to be Hospitalized with COVID, According to Analysis

On Sep 7, 2021

Those who are unvaccinated were nearly six times more likely to be hospitalized with severe COVID illness in August than those who have received the vaccine, according to a New Jersey Hospital Association analysis of COVID hospitalizations.

Nearly three in every four patients hospitalized with COVID, or 73.3%, had not received a single dose of the vaccine, according to data reported by New Jersey hospitals through the NJHA COVID-19 Data Portal. A new bulletin from NJHA’s Center for Health Analytics, Research and Transformation provides a snapshot view of data from Aug. 31, as reported by hospitals through the NJHA COVID-19 Data Portal.

The full breakdown of the vaccination status of hospitalized COVID patients shows:

• 73.3% are not vaccinated
• 23.7% are fully vaccinated
• 3% are partially vaccinated.

With nearly 5.6 million fully vaccinated individuals in New Jersey and 2.7 million still unvaccinated, the roughly 265 vaccinated patients and 730 unvaccinated patients this August equate to a hospitalization rate of 4.33 per 100,000 for the fully vaccinated and 26.33 per 100,000 for the unvaccinated. All told, the unvaccinated are nearly 6 times more vulnerable to serious COVID illness that lands them in a hospital bed.

“The data confirms once again: Vaccination is the strongest weapon we have to protect against serious COVID illness and hospitalization,” said NJHA President and CEO Cathy Bennett. “Our state is experiencing a new influx of COVID patients, but this increase is different than our earlier surges – because now we know that many of these hospitalizations are preventable simply by getting the safe and effective COVID vaccine.”

Just eight weeks ago, New Jersey marked an all-pandemic low of 267 hospitalized COVID patients on July 2, 2021. That number has climbed with the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant; on Aug. 26, N.J. hospitals again surpassed the milestone of 1,000 COVID patients in their care, and the number continues to rise, standing at 1,065 on Sept. 1.

NJHA also analyzed COVID hospitalizations and vaccination by age. Recent weeks have seen the number of pediatric cases in New Jersey rise as a proportion of total COVID hospitalizations from 1.13% in the first three months of 2021 to 1.93% by the end of June. Among ages 0-17, 76.9% of those hospitalized with COVID are not vaccinated, compared with 23.1% who are fully vaccinated. Those numbers reflect that vaccination is available beginning at age 12 under an emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine. There is no vaccination available for ages 0-12 at this time.

See the full CHART bulletin at www.njha.com/CHART.

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