Unvaccinated people 29 times more likely to be hospitalised, CDC finds

People who were not vaccinated against Covid-19 were nearly five times as likely to be infected and 29 times more likely to be hospitalised than people who were inoculated from the disease, according to research from Los Angeles published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The evidence follows the release of several similar studies revealing the vaccines’ ability to significantly reduce the risk of severe illness, hospitalisation and death, while underscoring the alarming impacts of infections and transmission among the unvaccinated as the more-contagious Delta variant becomes dominant.

Another report released from the CDC on Tuesday also illustrated the waning efficacy of vaccines against the surge in Delta infections, which US health officials signalled earlier this month following several weeks of climbing rates of severe illness that have overstressed health systems and warnings to Americans that vaccines remain the best defence to keep people out of hospitals.