Reduction in COVID-19 Patients Requiring Mechanical Ventilation Following Implementation of a National COVID-19 Vaccination Program — Israel, December 2020–February 2021

The availability of COVID-19 vaccines represents an opportunity to mitigate the effects of the global pandemic.Achieving high vaccination coverage through intensive vaccination campaigns has the potential to substantially reduce COVID-19-associated morbidity and mortality.Clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in preventing mild and severe COVID-19 in a controlled setting.However, clinical trials are not designed to assess the population impact of vaccination in a real-world setting (1,2).Israel initiated a national vaccination campaign using the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine in December 2020, prioritizing persons aged >60 years, health care workers, and persons with underlying medical conditions.By February 2021, 2-dose vaccination coverage among persons aged ≥70 years was 84%.To assess the effect of COVID-19 vaccination on the occurrence of severe disease, an ecological study was conducted.Requiring mechanical ventilation was used as a proxy for severe COVID-19.The number of COVID-19 patients aged ≥70 years (who had the highest 2-dose vaccination coverage, 84.3%) requiring mechanical ventilation was compared with that of patients aged <50 years, who had the lowest 2-dose vaccination coverage (9.9%).Since implementation of the second dose of the vaccination campaign, the ratio of COVID-19 patients requiring mechanical ventilation aged ≥70 years to those aged <50 years has declined 67%, from 5.8:1 during October-December 2020 to 1.9:1 in February 2021.These findings provide preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing severe cases of COVID-19 at the national level in Israel.Receipt of COVID-19 vaccines by eligible persons can help limit spread of disease and potentially reduce the occurrence of severe disease.The first case of COVID-19 in Israel, a country with a population of approximately 9 million, was reported in February 2020.As of February 9, 2021, approximately 700,000 cases and 5,200 deaths had been reported (3).Nonpharmaceutical interventions have included three national stay-at-home orders, † multiple rounds of school closures, restrictions on commercial activity and travel, and a mask mandate, among others.The most recent * These authors contributed equally to this report.