Most Covid-19 hospital admissions 'are unvaccinated'

Most people being admitted to hospital after testing positive for Covid-19 are unvaccinated, a Scottish Government adviser has said.

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Nicola Steedman also said two-thirds of coronavirus cases were unvaccinated.

She was quoting Public Health Scotland data from late June and early July.

During the latest wave of the pandemic, younger people have made up a larger proportion of cases than in earlier periods.

Speaking at the Scottish Government’s coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, Dr Steedman said: “Two-thirds of positive cases of Covid were in unvaccinated individuals.

“In terms of Covid-positive admissions, 51.6% were in unvaccinated individuals, of which 70% were under 40.

“So what we are certainly seeing is that risk – as we would expect from the vaccine efficacy – is much, much higher in those who are unvaccinated.”

She said the vaccines were more than 90% effective against hospital admission after two doses.

The latest data had not provided any surprises in terms of the effectiveness of a single dose versus two doses, she said.

Discussing the lower levels of vaccine uptake among younger people, particularly young males, she said this trend had emerged in a number of different vaccination programmes.

She said: “We often think that we are invincible when we’re younger, we think that our risk of becoming seriously ill is much less.

“With Covid that’s true, but it is not zero, it is very far from zero and young people do become seriously ill from Covid.”