Data from the intensive care register: Unvaccinated people make up the majority of all COVID-19 cases in intensive care units

13.01.2022 18:53

Unvaccinated people currently make up the majority of all COVID-19 admissions to intensive care units. This is shown by evaluations from the RKI and DIVI intensive care register, in which the vaccination status has also been recorded since mid-December 2021. For this purpose, all acute care intensive care units in Germany report the vaccination status of newly admitted COVID-19 patients the previous day by 12:00 p.m. every day. The data is not collected personally, but is recorded completely anonymously.

Between December 14, 2021 and January 12, 2022, the vaccination status was available for 8,912 COVID-19 shots, which corresponds to around 90 percent of the cases transmitted during this period (9,946). Almost two thirds (62 percent, 5,521 cases) of all new COVID-19 admissions with known vaccination status were unvaccinated. Around 9.6 percent (856 cases) had incomplete immune protection (recovery without vaccination or partial immunization). Over a quarter of the COVID-19 ICU admissions (28.4 percent, 2,535 cases) had complete vaccination protection (basic vaccination or booster), the proportion with booster vaccination was around 5.8 percent (520 cases).

The results will be published in the RKI's COVID-19 weekly report from January 21, 2022.

The vaccination status of the ITS admissions corresponds to the previously published figures from the RKI

The results of the new daily query in the intensive care register confirm the findings on the proportion of unvaccinated and vaccinated COVID-19 patients in intensive care units, which are published in the weekly report of the Robert Koch Institute based on the IfSG reporting data (see www.rki.de /covid-19-weekly report, tables on vaccination breakthroughs). When comparing the IfSG reporting data in the weekly report with the surveys in the DIVI intensive care register, it should be noted that these are two different types of data collection, which are based on slightly different definitions of vaccination status (see definitions of the intensive care register). The periods of data collected and cases transmitted may also differ.

Assessment of vaccination effectiveness

RKI and DIVI expressly point out that the intensive care register data in this form are not suitable for assessing the effectiveness of the vaccination.
In order to assess the effect of the vaccination, the above-mentioned data must, among other things, be placed in relation to the development of the general vaccination rate of the population.