COVID-19 Scan for Jul 21, 2022

Pfizer vaccine 83% effective against hospital Omicron illness in kids 5 to 11In 5- to 11-year-old children, two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine were 36.8% effective in preventing all SARS-CoV-2 infections, 63.5% against test-confirmed cases, and 82.7% against hospitalization amid the Omicron variant surge in Singapore, finds a real-world study published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).Researchers in Singapore analyzed data from 255,936 children aged 5 to 11 years from Jan 21 to Apr 8, 2022.

In Singapore, COVID-19 vaccination of children 5 to 11 years old began Dec 27, 2021, starting with those aged 9 to 11 and extending to the younger children 2 weeks later.

By the end of the study, 67.7% children were fully vaccinated, 12.0% had one dose, and 20.3% were unvaccinated. Overall, 53,429 COVID-19 infections were reported over the 17.9 million person-days at risk, and 10% were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR).Of the 16.4 million person-days at risk for hospitalization, 288 children were admitted for treatment, 5 were hospitalized, and 4 required intensive care; 2 were fully vaccinated, 2 were partially vaccinated, and 1 was unvaccinated.Rates of all SARS-CoV-2 infections (positive result on PCR or rapid antigen testing), cases confirmed through PCR, and hospitalizations among unvaccinated children were 3,303.5, 473.8, and 30.0 per 1 million person-days, respectively.Vaccine effectiveness (VE) among partially vaccinated children was 13.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 11.7% to 15.5%) against infection, 24.3% (95% CI, 19.5% to 28.9%) against PCR-confirmed infection, and 42.3% (95% CI, 24.9% to 55.7%) against hospitalization.