Examining the dynamics of COVID-19s pandemic peak

The CDI team assessed more than 5,000 nasopharyngeal swabs of patients from nine HMH hospitals, from December 2020 to June 2022.
The cross-sectional view of this part of the pandemic assessed the de-identified swabs to include variants, vaccination status, clinical outcomes, and underlying risk factors.
The scientists essentially tracked the evolution of the virus, especially in the appearance of successive variants. The major strains identified were alpha, delta, and omicron, the last of which included subvariants BA.1, BA.2, and BA.4/5.
Unvaccinated individuals made up roughly 80 percent of ICU admissions and ventilator cases, each. Approximately 75 percent of the deaths were among unvaccinated patients, as well.
Approximately 31.5 percent of the total samples were considered “vaccine breakthrough” cases—most of which were counted during the omicron waves.
Comorbidities among the group were a significant driver of increasing severity of disease, including ICU admission, ventilator use, and death.
Age was the most significant factor for such progressively serious outcomes.