Higher Death, Hospitalization Rates Among Vaccinated Individuals: UK COVID-19 Data

The UK is one of the most vaccinated countries in the world against Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Out of the nation’s 68 million people, more than 45 million have received at least a single dose, and over 33 million have been fully vaccinated. However, a new report released by Public Health England (PHE) highlighted the fact that in the past few months, more fully vaccinated people have died from the Delta variant compared to unvaccinated people.

The report, titled “SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants under investigation in England, Technical briefing 16,” examined 60,624 Delta infections between February 1 and June 14, of which 35,521 cases were observed in unvaccinated individuals and 4,087 cases were seen in fully vaccinated individuals who got infected at least 14 days after their second dose.

The death rate for fully vaccinated individuals was 0.636 percent, which was 6.6 times higher than the unvaccinated death rate of 0.0957 percent. 26 deaths were reported among the fully vaccinated individuals, compared to 34 deaths in the unvaccinated. The death rates among fully vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals were both below one percent.

Fully vaccinated individuals were also found to be more prone to hospitalization than their unvaccinated counterparts. Out of the 4,087 fully vaccinated people, 2.05 percent (84 people) ended up in a hospital. Among the 35,521 unvaccinated people, only 1.48 percent (527 people) were hospitalized.