Receiving COVID-19 vaccine, hospitalization, and outcomes of patients with COVID-19: A prospective study.

ABSTRACT

Despite Iraq having started the COVID-19 vaccine in January 2020, there is no official data on vaccination and hospitalization across the country. We aimed to explore the role of the COVID-19 vaccine on the hospitalization and outcomes of patients with COVID-19 in Iraqi Kurdistan. In this prospective study, patients who were admitted to two COVID-19 hospitals in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2021 were followed-up by the discharge time between August and November 2021. The mean age of the patients was 57.6 (27-98 years) of both genders. Most of the patients were illiterate (69.3%) or had a lower level of education (20.5%). A small percentage of patients had previous thrombotic disorders (4.7%) and close to half of the patients had chronic diseases (44.9%). The patients had mild to moderate (44.9%), moderate-severe (36.2%), and critical (18.9%) status. The median hospitalization day was 9 days (1-45 days). The study found that 91.3% of the COVID-19 hospitalized patients did not receive the vaccine and 26.8% of patients died. We did not find a significant association between receiving vaccination and patients' outcomes or disease severity. No patients with previous thrombotic disorders received the COVID-19 vaccine. The male patients were more likely to receive the COVID-19 vaccine compared to female patients; 14.55% vs. 4.17%, p=0.0394.  This study showed that most patients with COVID-19 who were admitted to the hospitals have not received the COVID-19 vaccine. A high percentage of the COVID-19 hospitalized patients died of the disease in this region.