COVID hospitalisation rates

10 June 2022

Dear

ATISN 16308 – COVID Hospitalisation Rates

Thank you for your request to the Welsh Government for information under the Freedom of Information Act (2000) received on 11 May 2022.  You requested the following:

• The information that the Minister for Health stated was widely available at her press briefing in December showing that the unvaccinated were far more likely to be hospitalised.

Our response

A brief was provided to the Minister for Health and Social Services on COVID-19 unvaccinated hospitalisation rates in October and November but not in December.

Please see the attached link to the UK Government COVID-19 vaccination surveillance report, which contains data on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines against hospitalisation:  COVID-19 vaccine surveillance report - week 48 

In October, Public Health Wales most recent surveillance of vaccine status in confirmed COVID­-19 episodes and hospital inpatients showed that 14.9% of COVID­-19 hospital inpatients were unvaccinated, compared with 78.6% double vaccinated. When split by age, 6.4% of hospitalised patients aged 60+ were unvaccinated compared with 90.8% double vaccinated, and 38% of patients under 60 were unvaccinated compared with 45% of patients double vaccinated. Note this data should not be interpreted as measures of vaccination effectiveness and even with a highly effective vaccine, it is expected that a large proportion of cases would occur in vaccinated individuals. For full details please see here: technical advisory cell summary of advice - 15 October 2021 

In November, Public Health Wales most recent surveillance of vaccine status in confirmed COVID-19 episodes and hospital inpatients showed that, in the most recent 2-week reporting period ending 17 October, 27.9% of COVID-19 hospital inpatients were unvaccinated compared with 48.0% double-vaccinated. When split by age, 2.5% of hospitalised patients aged 60+ were unvaccinated compared with 96% double vaccinated, and 14.0% of patients under 60 were unvaccinated compared with 79.8% of patients double-vaccinated. This data should not be interpreted as measures of vaccination effectiveness; for this see the most recent VEEP estimates. For full details please see here technical advisory cell summary of advice - 5 November 2021.

Next steps

If you are dissatisfied with the Welsh Government’s handling of your request, you can ask for an internal review within 40 working days of the date of this response.  Requests for an internal review should be addressed to the Welsh Government’s Freedom of Information Officer at:

Information Rights Unit, 
Welsh Government,
Cathays Park, 
Cardiff, 
CF10 3NQ 

or Email: Freedom.ofinformation@gov.wales

Please remember to quote the ATISN reference number above.   

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:  Information Commissioner’s Office,

Wycliffe House, 
Water Lane, 
Wilmslow, 
Cheshire, 
SK9 5AF.

However, please note that the Commissioner will not normally investigate a complaint until it has been through our own internal review process.

Yours sincerely