Risk of hospitalization and vaccine effectiveness among COVID-19 patients in the UAE during the Delta and Omicron outbreaks

Introduction

A rapid increase in COVID-19 cases due to the spread of the Delta and Omicron variants in vaccinated populations has raised concerns about the hospitalization risk associated with, and the effectiveness of, COVID-19 vaccines.

Method

This case-control study aims to determine the hospitalization risk associated with the inactivated BBIBP-CorV (Sinopharm) and mRNA BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BionTech) vaccines, and their effectiveness reducing the rate of hospital admission between 28 May 2021 and 13 January 2022, during the Delta and Omicron outbreaks. The estimation of vaccine effectiveness of 4,618 samples was based on the number of patients hospitalized at different vaccination statuses, adjusted for confounding variables.

Results

Hospitalization risk increases in patients affected with the Omicron variant if patients are aged ≤ 18 years (OR 6.41, 95% CI 2.90 to 14.17; p < 0.001), and in patients affected with the Delta variant if they are aged > 45 years (OR 3.41, 95% CI 2.21 to 5.50; p < 0.001). Vaccine effectiveness reducing the rate of hospital admission for fully vaccinated participants infected with the Delta and Omicron variants was similar for both the BBIBP-CorV (94%, 95% CI 90% to 97%; 90%, 95% CI 74% to 96%) and BNT162b2 vaccines (95%, 95% CI 61% to 99.3%; 94%, 95% CI 53% to 99%), respectively.

Discussion

The BBIBP-CorV and BNT162b2 vaccines utilized in the UAE vaccination program were highly effective in reducing the rate of COVID-19-related hospitalization during the Delta and Omicron outbreaks, and further effort must be taken to achieve high vaccine coverage rates in children and adolescents in the global context to reduce the hospitalization risk associated with COVID-19 on an international scale.

Similar effectiveness of the inactivated vaccine BBIBP-CorV (Sinopharm) and the mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) against COVID-19 related hospitalizations during the Delta outbreak in the UAE

Inactivated vaccine BBIBP-CorV {Sinopharm; 95% [95% confidence interval (CI): 94, 97%]} and the mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 [Pfizer-BioNTech; 98% (95% CI: 86, 99%)] demonstrated protection against COVID-19 related hospitalizations from the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant. Ongoing efforts are necessary to target vaccine hesitancy and to promote booster shots for protection against severe COVID-19 disease and arising variants of concern.