Impacts of rapid mass vaccination against SARS-CoV2 in an early variant of concern hotspot

Paetzold, Jörg; Kimpel, Janine; Bates, Katie; Hummer, Michael; Krammer, Florian; Laer, Dorotheé von; Winner, Hannes

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-28233-8

Cited by 14 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…5-25.6). With a vaccination coverage of 10% among the adult population of Schwaz prior to the mass immunization campaign (6), our result implies that a maximum of one third of the adult popuation had at least one SARS-CoV-2 specific immunological event.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…Vaccine donors, regional or national health authorities, vaccine policy makers, other relevant institutions or even the general public may legitimately wonder what proportion of the community had already been exposed to the virus or what proportion was completely immuno-naïve as this unique immunization campaign started. The results may be used as baseline information in evaluating the performance of the mass immunization in achieving the goal it was aimed for (6). Although for this purpose data from the official registry of SARS-CoV-2 infections may be utilized, it is highly likely that a non-negligible proportion of the population might have gone through an infection that has remained undetected and unreported (7)(8)(9)(10).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Tyrolean district of Schwaz at the time of the rapid mass vaccination in March 2021 following B.1.351-variant outbreak

Willeit

Kimpel

Winner

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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In order to curb the rapid dissemination of the B.1.351 variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the district of Schwaz and beyond, the EU allocated additional vaccine doses at the beginning of March 2021 to implement a rapid mass vaccination of the population (16+). The aim of our study was to determine the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 among the adult population in the district of Schwaz at the time of the implementation. Data on previous history of infections, symptoms and immunization status were collected using a structured questionnaire. Blood samples were used to determine SARS-CoV-2 specific anti-spike, anti-nucleocapsid and neutralizing antibodies. We recruited 2,474 individuals with a median age (IQR) of 42 (31–54) years. Using the official data on distribution of age and sex, we found a standardized prevalence of undocumented infections at 15.0% (95% CI: 13.2–16.7). Taken together with the officially documented infections, we estimated that 24.0% (95% CI: 22.5–25.6) of the adult population had prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. Hence, the proportion of undocumented infections identified by our study was 55.8% (95% CI: 52.7–58.5). With a vaccination coverage of 10% among the adults population at that time, we imply that a minimum of two-thirds of the target popuation was susceptible to the circulating threat when this unique campaign started.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Tyrolean district of Schwaz at the time of the rapid mass vaccination in March 2021 following B.1.351-variant outbreak

Willeit

Kimpel

Winner

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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“…1.1.529). Notably, the province of Tyrol harboured one of the largest clusters of the Beta variant (B.1.351) outside of South Africa from January to March 2021 50,51 Such spatiotemporal dynamics of emerging viral variants coupled with a comprehensive national epidemiological surveillance system 52 including routine genotyping of positive cases, and a high population share of 93% being connected to sewer infrastructure 53 set the stage to develop and validate the necessary methodology for WW-based variant monitoring by sequencing.…”

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confidence: 99%

Viral variant-resolved wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 at national scale

et al. 2022

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SARS-CoV-2 surveillance by wastewater-based epidemiology is poised to provide a complementary approach to sequencing individual cases. However, robust quantification of variants and de novo detection of emerging variants remains challenging for existing strategies. We deep sequenced 3,413 wastewater samples representing 94 municipal catchments, covering >59% of the population of Austria, from December 2020 to February 2022. Our system of variant quantification in sewage pipeline designed for robustness (termed VaQuERo) enabled us to deduce the spatiotemporal abundance of predefined variants from complex wastewater samples. These results were validated against epidemiological records of >311,000 individual cases. Furthermore, we describe elevated viral genetic diversity during the Delta variant period, provide a framework to predict emerging variants and measure the reproductive advantage of variants of concern by calculating variant-specific reproduction numbers from wastewater. Together, this study demonstrates the power of national-scale WBE to support public health and promises particular value for countries without extensive individual monitoring.

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“…To analyse this indirect protection effect, we studied a unique rapid mass vaccination campaign. In particular, following an outbreak of the Beta variant (Phylogenetic Assignment of Named Global Outbreak (Pango) lineage designation B.1.351) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the district of Schwaz (Austria), the government of Austria supplied 100,000 extra doses of the Comirnaty vaccine (BNT162b2 mRNA, Pfizer/BioNTech) to rapidly massvaccinate the entire adult population (≥ 16 years) of Schwaz [8,9]. After the first campaign weekend in March 2021, around 70% of the adult population of Schwaz (71,463 people) had received their first dose.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After the first campaign weekend in March 2021, around 70% of the adult population of Schwaz (71,463 people) had received their first dose. In contrast, the rest of the country had a very low vaccination coverage (first dose) of around 10% at that time [8,9]. This local mass vaccination campaign created a situation in which the vaccination coverage of the adult population differed sharply at the district border of Schwaz, while the coverage of those younger than 16 years remained the exact same, basically zero (the European Medicines Agency approved the first vaccine for those under 16 years only on 28 May 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can high COVID-19 vaccination rates in adults help protect unvaccinated children? Evidence from a unique mass vaccination campaign, Schwaz/Austria, March 2021

et al. 2022

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Background After an outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 Beta variant in the district of Schwaz/Austria, vaccination with Comirnaty vaccine (BNT162b2 mRNA, BioNTech-Pfizer) had been offered to all adult inhabitants (≥ 16 years) in March 2021. This made Schwaz one of the most vaccinated regions in Europe at that time (70% of the adult population took up the offer). In contrast, all other Austrian districts remained with low vaccine coverage. Aim We studied whether this rapid mass vaccination campaign provided indirect protection to unvaccinated individuals such as children (< 16 years) living in the same district. Methods To study the effect of the campaign we used two complementary approaches. We compared infection rates among the population of children (< 16 years) in Schwaz with (i) the child population from similar districts (using the synthetic control method), and (ii) with the child population from municipalities along the border of Schwaz not included in the campaign (using an event study approach). Results Before the campaign, we observed very similar infection spread across the cohort of children in Schwaz and the control regions. After the campaign, we found a significant reduction of new cases among children of −64.5% (95%-CI: −82.0 to −30.2%) relative to adjacent border municipalities (using the event study model). Employing the synthetic control method, we observed a significant reduction of −42.8% in the same cohort. Conclusion Our results constitute novel evidence of an indirect protection effect from a group of vaccinated individuals to an unvaccinated group.

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Impacts of rapid mass vaccination against SARS-CoV2 in an early variant of concern hotspot

Cited by 14 publications

References 20 publications

Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Tyrolean district of Schwaz at the time of the rapid mass vaccination in March 2021 following B.1.351-variant outbreak

Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Tyrolean district of Schwaz at the time of the rapid mass vaccination in March 2021 following B.1.351-variant outbreak

Viral variant-resolved wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 at national scale

Can high COVID-19 vaccination rates in adults help protect unvaccinated children? Evidence from a unique mass vaccination campaign, Schwaz/Austria, March 2021

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