Just 17% of patients ending up in hospital intensive care units with coronavirus in September were fully vaccinated, the public health institute RIVM says in a new report.

At the same time, 25% of hospital admissions were down to people who had been vaccinated, the RIVM said. The report focuses on 1369 people who were admitted to hospital in September and up to October 4, and whose vaccination status was known at the time.

The figures means the ‘likelihood of ending up in an IC ward is 33 times lower for someone who has been fully vaccinated than people who have not had their jabs,’ the RIVM said.

Some 80% of the Dutch population over the age of 12 is now fully vaccinated and the figures show that vaccination has a very major impact on the likelihood of becoming seriously ill with the virus.

In total, vaccination reduces the risk of being admitted to hospital by 95% and an IC admission by 97%.

‘Despite full vaccination, people may still… test positive for COVID-19, and some will be admitted to hospital,’ the RIVM said. Older people (and vulnerable people) are more likely to be hospitalised.

Family members

The RIVM has also published other research which shows coronavirus vaccines also protect against transmission of the Delta variant of the virus.

The research covers August and September, by which time the Delta variant was dominant in the Netherlands and is based on contact tracing data.

The research shows that fully vaccinated people who do become infected are 63% less likely to transmit the virus to unvaccinated housemates than infected people who have not been vaccinated.

At the same time, the effectiveness of full vaccination against transmission to fully vaccinated household contacts was 40%, on top of the direct protection which  vaccination offers against infection.

The researchers said earlier that vaccines are 73% effective at stopping transmission of the Alpha variant to unvaccinated household contacts.