ECDC builds study infrastructure to monitor COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness

As of October 2021, more than 30 hospitals in 10 EU countries are part of the monitoring in hospital settings. These are Belgium, Czechia, Croatia, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal and Spain.

On October 8, ECDC published an initial interim analysis presenting pooled estimates of VE against severe acute respiratory infection due to laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 in hospitalised patients. The report indicates high VE of 90% when assessed 14 days after a full vaccination course, and for vaccines that received conditional marketing authorisation by the European Medicines Agency. Data were collected between December 2020 and June 2021 and indicates high efficacy in preventing hospitalisation for COVID-19.

Regular updates of these results will be provided periodically as the study continues, including more extensive analyses to assess factors that may affect VE, such as variants and length of time since vaccination. The outcome of this study will contribute to knowledge on the performance of COVID-19 vaccines in real-life settings.

Along with the first interim analysis, ECDC also publishes the core protocol for studies of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection

This study is part of ECDC activities aimed at strengthening post-marketing monitoring of the safety, effectiveness and impact of COVID-19 vaccines in the EU/EEA.