Hospitalization rates up during omicron BA.2 predominance

Hospitalization rates were high during the omicron BA-2-predominant period and were highest among unvaccinated adults, according to research published in the Aug. 26 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Fiona P. Havers, M.D., from the CDC COVID-19 Emergency Response Team, and colleagues used data from the COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network to describe recent COVID-19-associated hospitalization rates among adults during the period coinciding with omicron BA.2 predominance (March 20 to May 31, 2022).

The researchers found that weekly hospitalization rates increased threefold among adults aged 65 years and older, from 6.9 per 100,000 population in the week ending April 2, 2022, to 27.6 for the week ending May 28, 2022. During the same time interval, hospitalization rates increased 1.7-fold for adults aged 18 to 49 and 50 to 64 years. Hospitalization rates were 3.4 times as high for unvaccinated versus vaccinated adults. Of hospitalized nonpregnant patients in this period, 39.1 percent had received a primary vaccination series and one booster or additional dose and 5.0 percent had received a primary series and two or more boosters or additional doses.

"In addition to staying up to date with vaccinations, other multiple nonpharmaceutical and medical prevention measures are important to reduce the risk for hospitalization among adults at high risk for severe COVID-19 illness," the authors write.

One author disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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