Who's at the greatest risk of being hospitalized by COVID-19? New Public Health data breaks it down

New data from Newfoundland and Labrador's Department of Health is highlighting who could be at the greatest risk of facing severe health outcomes due to COVID-19 as province aims to lift all public health restrictions later this month.

According to the data provided to CBC News last week, 138 people were admitted to hospital due to COVID-19 from Dec. 15, deemed the beginning of the province's Omicron wave, to Feb. 28.

For comparison, Newfoundland and Labrador reported more than 24,000 known cases of the virus in that period, but the actual number is much higher as not all positive cases in the province were reported to public health.

The data is broken down into two categories: Age and vaccination status.

Sixty-seven of the 138 hospitalizations, or around 48 per cent of hospitalizations, were people over the age of 70. Additionally, 26 people were in their 60s, 23 were in their 50s, six were in their 40s, four were between the ages of 20 and 39 and 12 people were under the age of 20.

Of the group of 138, 128 people — or almost 93 per cent of all hospitalizations — had a pre-existing medical condition on top of a COVID-19 diagnosis.

For Dr. Peter Daley, an infectious diseases doctor who has treated many of the patients admitted to hospital, age and vaccination status are the two largest determinants that can lead to hospitalization.

"The older you are, the greater your risk of admission or death because of COVID-19. The next most important thing we know is vaccines. Vaccine prevents infection, it prevents admission and it prevents death."

Over 95 per cent of Newfoundland and Labrador's total population is vaccinated against COVID-19. Data collected by CBC News shows 55.5 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated with a COVID-19 booster dose, 35 per cent of the province has two doses and 4.7 per cent of the population has one dose.

The data also shows that 4.57 per cent of the population is unvaccinated — However, that group makes up almost 27 per cent of all hospitalizations. Of the 138 hospitalizations, 37 were people who are not vaccinated.

The data shows 26 people who were hospitalized had three doses of vaccine, while 73 people had two doses and two people had only one dose.

While the number of hospitalizations appear higher in those fully vaccinated than those unvaccinated, Daley said that is due to high vaccination rates among the vast majority of the province's population.

"We have people who are sick or dying that are well vaccinated, but they represent a very, very tiny proportion of the vast majority of the province that are vaccinated," he said. "We might be duped into thinking that vaccine is not effective, but vaccine is definitely effective."

The province also shared statistics around the number of COVID-19 related deaths during the Omicron wave.