Impact of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on a population of healthcare professionals

ABSTRACT

Background and Aim: In January 2021, vaccination against CoViD-19 was started in Italy. F. Miulli Regional Hospital, in Acquaviva delle Fonti (BA), has prepared a vaccination plan in order to cover the entire health care population which, starting from January 6, 2021, led to the vaccination of 1,700 subjects. Purpose of the study was to evaluate the impact of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on healthcare personnel. Primary outcomes were the number of infections detected after vaccination and hospitalizations for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Materials and Methods: Nasopharyngeal swabs were analyzed with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction techniques. Vaccination campaign was carried out in the period January-February 2021. The data were compared according to three periods time 0 March-April 2020;time 1 October2020-January 2021;time 2 (post vaccine) February-April 2021. Results: The swabs analyzed were respectively Time 0 1.077;Time 1 9.043;Time 2 4.013. The positive tests and their percentage, relative to the swabs examined in the three times, are Time 0 17 cases (1.57%);Time 1 137 cases (1.51%);Time 2 15 cases (0.37%). Furthermore, none of the positive subjects at time 2 required hospitalization, compared to 3.2% of hospitalizations which occurred between time 0 and time 1. Conclusions: Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 resulted in a 75.3% reduction in infections in vaccinated subjects and a 100% reduction in hospitalizations, indicating a high protective effect for both infection and disease expression.