Only 1.8 percent of the more than 43,000 COVID-19 cases assessed in comparing the two variants were in patients who had been fully vaccinated. Three-quarters were completely unvaccinated, and 24 percent had received only one jab of a two-dose vaccine. The Delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 doubles the risk of hospitalisation compared with the Alpha variant it has supplanted as the dominant strain worldwide, researchers reported in The Lancet on Saturday. “The results from this study therefore primarily tell us about the risk of hospital admission for those who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated,” said co-lead author Anne Presanis, a senior statistician at the University of Cambridge’s MRC Biostatistics Unit.
Researchers analysed healthcare data from 43,338 COVID-19 cases in England from March 29 to May 23 of this year, including vaccination status, emergency care, hospital admission and other patient information. All virus samples underwent whole genome sequencing, the surest way to confirm which variant had caused the infection. About one in 50 patients were admitted to hospital within 14 days of their first positive COVID-19 test. Just below 80 percent of the cases were identified as the Alpha variant, and the rest were Delta.
After accounting for factors that are known to affect susceptibility to severe illness – including age, ethnicity, and vaccination status – the researchers found the risk of being admitted to hospital was more than double with the Delta variant. Since these samples were taken, Delta has surged and now accounts for more than 98 percent of new COVID-19 cases in Britain, the authors said. Multiple studies have shown that full vaccination prevents infection with symptoms and hospitalisation for both Alpha and Delta variants.
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