Fully vaccinated 16 times less likely to die

AUSTRALIA: People who are fully vaccinated are 16 times less likely to end up in intensive care units (ICU) or to die from Covid-19 than those who aren’t immunised, an Australian study found, the latest evidence showing how the shots prevent the most dreaded outcomes.

Nearly 16 out of 100,000 people who had yet to receive a COVID vaccine landed in intensive care or died after contracting the virus, compared to fewer than 1 in every 100,000 who were fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by health authorities in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state.

Separately, data collected in Texas, United States, showed unvaccinated people were 20 times more likely to perish from the virus than those who were fully protected. The data was the result of a four-week, in-state study. The risk of death was 48 times higher for unvaccinated people in their 30s and 63 times higher for those in their 40s, the study found. The pandemic’s effects on mortality have been uneven. Life expectancy dipped in most places last year, shaving 28.1 million years off the cumulative longevity in 31 countries. But residents of a handful of places that successfully kept COVID-19 at bay actually lived longer.

A study of 37 countries and territories in the journal BMJ found the pandemic was a killing field in most places. More than 28 million years of life were lost in 2020 across 31 of them, with Russia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, the US, and Poland recording the heaviest toll.

Years of life lost in 2020 were higher than expected everywhere except Taiwan, New Zealand, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and South Korea.

Singapore is rolling back some curbs, with five people from the same residence allowed to dine at restaurants starting from Wednesday.

– THE HINDUSTAN TIMES