More than 80% of Covid-19 ICU patients are unvaccinated

The vast majority of Covid-19 patients who recently ended up in intensive care were not vaccinated against the coronavirus disease. The RIVM calculates that 83 percent of the ICU patients admitted between September 1 and October 3, and whose vaccination status is known, were not vaccinated against Covid-19.

A minority of 16 percent were fully vaccinated and still became seriously ill and required intensive care treatment. One percent of ICU patients were partially vaccinated.

Almost three-quarters (73%) of all people who ended up in any hospital ward in the Netherlands because of Covid-19 were unvaccinated, and two percent of them were partially vaccinated. The remaining fourth was fully vaccinated.

"The chance of a fully vaccinated person ending up in an ICU because of Covid-19 is 33 times smaller than as an unvaccinated person," calculated the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). The group of Dutch people who were vaccinated against the coronavirus disease now amounts to about 80 percent of the population aged 12 years and older.

The figures confirm once again that vaccination drastically reduces the risk of serious illness, the RIVM said. At the same time, the vaccinated minority that required hospital treatment demonstrates that vaccination does not provide 100 percent safety from the virus.

The RIVM analyzed the data of 1,369 people hospitalized due to the coronavirus infection, 282 of whom were treated in intensive care. That is equivalent to 91 percent of all patients. The institute does not know the vaccination status of the other 9 percent of the recently admitted patients.

"Because more and more people are being vaccinated, the proportion of vaccinated people in hospital is also increasing," the RIVM explained. "However, there are still more unvaccinated people in hospitals than vaccinated people."