Abstract
The available coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines have shown their effectiveness in clinical trials. We aimed to assess the real-world effects of SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations in Greece. We combined national data on vaccinations, SARS-CoV-2 cases, COVID-19-related ICU admissions and COVID-19-related deaths. We observed 3,367,673 vaccinations (30.68% of the Greek population), 278,821 SARS-CoV-2 infections and 7401 COVID-19-related deaths. The vaccination rate significantly increased from week 2 to week 6 by 85.70%, and from week 7 to 25 by 15.65%. The weekly mean of SARS-CoV-2 cases, COVID-19 ICU patients and COVID-19 deaths markedly declined as vaccination coverage accumulated. The rate of SARS-CoV-2 cases increased significantly from week 2 to week 13 by 16.15%, while from weeks 14–25 the rate decreased significantly by 13.50%. The rate of COVID-19-related ICU admissions decreased significantly by 7.41% from week 2 to week 4, increased significantly by 17.22% from weeks 5–11, then decreased significantly from weeks 17–20, by 11.99%, and from weeks 21–25, by 16.77%. The rate of COVID-19-related deaths increased significantly from week 2 to week 15 by 12.08% and decreased significantly by 16.58% from weeks 16–25. The data from this nationwide observational study underline the beneficial impact of the national vaccination campaign in Greece, which may offer control of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Highlights
Published: 21 February 2022Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) has emerged as an ongoing pandemic that has resulted in more than 5 million deaths worldwide [1]
The first vaccination efforts in Greece started on the 27 December 2020 with sparse vaccinations, whilst the nationwide vaccination campaign began on the 4 January 2021 with the vaccination of healthcare workers, and was extended on the 19 January to persons aged ≥ 85 years
The vaccination campaign started while Greece was under a nationwide lockdown, which had begun on the 7 November 2020
Summary
Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) has emerged as an ongoing pandemic that has resulted in more than 5 million deaths worldwide [1]. The fatality ratio of COVID-19 cases (i.e., the number of deaths divided by the number of diagnoses) ranges by region from. In response to the pandemic, several attempts have been made to control the dissemination of the SARS-CoV-2 infection in order to reduce COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality. Authorization of COVID-19 vaccines took place, soon after the publication of the initial phase 3 trials [4], and to date more than 8 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide [2]. Their rates of effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 were 95% for the BNT162b2 vaccine (Pfizer BioNTech), 70.4% for the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine (AZD1222, Astra Zeneca) and 94.1% for the mRNA-1273
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