Skopje, 2 December 2021 (MIA) – COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective at preventing severe cases and death. Vaccines from different manufacturers show no major differences in their efficiency to prevent Covid-related deaths, but there are differences in preventing hospitalization, show preliminary findings of an ongoing research about vaccine efficiency among the Macedonian population. A total of 1,886,124 citizens aged over 11 were included in the analysis, including 779,558 vaccinated respondents that were vaccinated with at least one dose, and 1,106,566 that were unvaccinated. Most of the vaccinated had received the Pfizer and Sinovac jabs, according to the study led by doctor Haris Babacic, epidemiologist and researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden in cooperation with Zhaklina Chagoroska of the Health Ministry’s e-healthcare administration. “The study shows that a total of 30,136 people were hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19 since the start of the epidemic in February 2020 until September 2021. Of those, 6,542 died, which is over 21% of hospitalizations,” said the Health Ministry. From January 2021 until September 2021, 1,114 hospitalizations were registered after vaccination out of 16,691 hospitalizations, it added. “The efficiency of vaccines is significantly lower among older men with men over 65 being 76% at risk to be hospitalized than those under 65. Also, men were at 23% risk than women to be hospitalized,” said the study. According to the analysis, two doses of the Pfizer vaccine showed the highest efficiency in preventing hospitalization, followed by the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca and Sinovac. They had efficiency of over 92%. Vaccines produced by Sinopharm and Gamaleya Institute proved less effective in preventing hospitalizations compared to the other three, but with 80% they are still highly effective, shows the study. Also, the efficiency of two doses of any vaccine in preventing coronavirus-related deaths roughly is at 94%. “Men over 65 were at risk as twice as high from dying of COVID-19 with men being at 28% higher risk of dying compared to women,” said the study. According to the analysis, done on voluntary basis, all vaccines are highly effective (over 91%) to prevent Covid-related deaths. “The vaccines produced by Sinopharm and Gamaleya Institute showed insignificant difference in preventing death compared to the other vaccines. The Sinopharm vaccine showed a slightly less efficiency compared to the other vaccines in preventing Covid-related deaths, which is still insignificant,” it said. The average age of the fatalities was 70 years. Half of the fatalities were under 71 with the youngest being 15 and the oldest 99.