Luxembourg's Ministry of Health has published the first results of its evaluation of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness among people aged 70 and over in the Grand Duchy, for the period from 28 December 2020 to 15 June 2021.
 
From the start, according to the Health Ministry, the objective of the national vaccination strategy has been to reduce the morbidity and mortality rate linked to COVID-19 and to preserve the capacity of the health system. Several vaccines have been used in Luxembourg since 28 December 2020. These are Comirnaty® (BioNtech / Pfizer), Spikevax® (Moderna), Vaxzevria® (AstraZeneca) and COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen® (Johnson & Johnson).

Between the start of the vaccination campaign and 15 June 2021, a total of 452,575 doses were administered: 273,097 (60%) were first doses and 179,478 (40%) were second doses. Comirnaty® was the most used vaccine, followed by Vaxzevria®, Spikevax® and finally COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen®.

In general, the adherence of people invited to get vaccinated during this period was 73%, for both women and men.

Vaccination coverage refers to the proportion of the population that is vaccinated. It has been increasing among the resident population over 16 years of age. As of 15 June, almost half of this population had received at least one dose, and one third had already received the second dose.

People aged 70 and over, especially those living in a care home, were the best covered, with a vaccination rate of 80% (for people aged 70+) and 84% (for people living in a care home) respectively, compared to 37% for the young population.

The deployed vaccines were found to offer good protection, particularly in fully vaccinated individuals aged 70 and over, in whom an 85% reduction in infections, 99% reduction in hospitalisations and 92% reduction in deaths associated with COVID-19 was observed. They are thus almost nine times less likely to be infected and ten times less likely to be hospitalised for COVID-19.

Similar protection was observed in residents of nursing homes, with a 90% reduction in infections, 98% reduction in hospitalisations and 96% reduction in deaths after the second dose.

The detailed report is available via the following link: https://covid19.public.lu/en/vaccination/infovaxx.html.