Vaccines continued providing strong protection as Omicron rose to dominance in Arizona

As Omicron rapidly emerged as Arizona’s dominant COVID-19 variant in December, vaccines continued offering robust protection against hospitalization and death. That’s according to a new report detailing COVID-19 variant trends and the latest update to our report on COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status.

The new report on variants shows week-by-week how Omicron pushed aside the Delta variant during December. It breaks down sequenced COVID-19 cases by age group and county. It also shows the proportion of sequenced cases of each variant that were hospitalized or died from COVID-19. You’ll find a comparison between the demographics of sequenced cases and those of all reported COVID-19 cases, which are currently very similar.

The first page shows the most recent seven weeks of data, with a one-month lag, summarizing sequencing results in Arizona. Subsequent pages, which contain more detailed information, show data from Jan. 1, 2021, through the most recent two-week period.

It’s linked above the COVID-19 Data Dashboard along with our report on COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status, which shows that in December unvaccinated people had a four times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19, a 24.4 times greater risk of COVID-19 hospitalization, and a 58 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19 compared to fully vaccinated people.

New COVID-19 variants will continue to emerge as long as large numbers of people continue to be infected. One of the most important steps all Arizonans ages 5 and older can take to reduce COVID-19 transmission is to get vaccinated and boosted. Today’s update to COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status underscores just how effective these safe, free, and widely available vaccines are at preventing severe illness and death.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report released yesterday on COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status adds an important element to this discussion: Fully vaccinated adults with a booster dose during Omicron’s ascent were 23 times less likely to be hospitalized than unvaccinated people, versus five times less likely for people who were fully vaccinated but lacked a booster dose. That’s all the more reason for everyone eligible to get a booster dose.

Visit azhealth.gov/FindVaccine to find a vaccination location near you.

By Jessica Rigler|2022-02-03T10:06:48-07:00February 2nd, 2022|Preparedness|Comments Off

About the Author: Jessica Rigler

Jessica Rigler, an Arizona native, began her public health career more than 15 years ago, serving in varied roles with local, state, federal, and international public health agencies. Jessica has been with the Arizona Department of Health Services for over 12 years, supporting evaluation activities with the state immunization program, serving as the state’s first Healthcare Associated Infections Coordinator, and leading the Bureau of Epidemiology and Disease Control. She is currently an Assistant Director overseeing the Division of Public Health Preparedness at ADHS, which spans the areas of Epidemiology and Disease Control, Emergency Medical Services, Public Health Statistics, Public Health Emergency Preparedness and the Arizona State Public Health Laboratory. In recent years, Jessica has worked with the ADHS team to lead critical public health responses including opioids and COVID-19. Jessica holds Bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry and human development from the University of California, San Diego, and a Master’s degree in public health from Emory University. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist and certified in infection control.