Few COVID-19 vaccinated patients need intensive care

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Fully vaccinated people make up a minority of COVID-19 hospitalizations and an even lower number of people needing intensive care and ventilators, current data from two large hospital systems in the Upper Midwest shows.

Minneapolis-based Allina Health reported 176 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 this week and that 22% are vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Sanford Health, based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, reported 159 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized this week at its facilities in the Dakotas and Minnesota, and that 10% are fully vaccinated.

The hospital systems are among the first in the nation to report their COVID-19 hospitalizations by severity and vaccination status.

Data from the two hospital systems show patients with breakthrough COVID-19 cases were less likely to need intensive care or ventilators. Only one of Sanford’s 34 COVID-19 patients on ventilators had been fully vaccinated compared with two of Allina’s 21 patients.

Minnesota ranks 21st among states with a first-dose vaccination rate of about 74% in its age 12 and older population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Dakotas had some of the highest vaccination rates in the nation earlier this year as health care workers were immunized, but progress has since declined. First-dose vaccination rates among people 12 and older are 70% in South Dakota and 60% in North Dakota with the latter being the fifth worst among U.S. states, according to the CDC.