Clinical Characteristics and Booster Vaccine Effectiveness of the
Omicron Variant
Abstract
Background Although many people received the COVID-19 vaccine,
shortly after the Chinese government announced that the three-year
COVID-19 restrictions were being eased, the first large number of
Omicron infections appeared in Beijing. In this study, we describe the
epidemiological characteristics, clinical severity, and time-to-event
distribution of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Beijing Omicron
outbreak, comparing those who received the booster vaccine with cases of
full/partial vaccines. Methods In this epidemiological study,
we collected epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and clinical
management data from the hospital information system (HIS) for 1495
cases using standardized forms. We also collected the illness onset
time, diagnosis time, hospital admission time, and start and end times
of each treatment. In addition, we collected the time of vaccination,
inoculation times, and type of COVID-19 vaccination thorough the
vaccination system. We described the epidemiological characteristics
across vaccine inoculation doses, and estimated the risk of death,
mechanical ventilation, and admission to the intensive care unit for
patients admitted to hospital. We used the Kaplan–Meier method to
estimate the survival rate and plot the survival curve, and the Cox
proportional hazards model to assess the effect of covariates on
survival time. Results Of the 1495 cases, 58.1% were male and
41.9% were female. The median ages in the non-vaccinated and vaccinated
groups were 80 and 47 years, respectively. The elderly, people with
underlying medical condition, and those with a lower BMI were less
willing to be vaccinated ( p<0.05). Both the
inactivated vaccine and adenovirus vaccine could reduce clinical
severity and prolong survival time, and the protective effect of booster
vaccination was the best. The clinical severity increased linearly from
the booster vaccinated group to the full vaccinated group and
non-vaccinated groups, and the death risk of COVID-19 cases without
vaccination was the highest. Conclusion Booster vaccines of
COVID-19 can provide greater protection against severe illness and
death, and continuous monitoring and regular assessment are needed to
minimize the risk of a recurrence of the pandemic.