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- The COVID-19 hospitalization rate among unvaccinated teens was 10 times higher than fully vaccinated teens.
- The new data was released Friday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
- The report said the data indicates vaccines "were highly effective at preventing serious COVID-19 illness in this age group."
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The coronavirus vaccines have again shown to be highly effective at preventing people from being hospitalized, this time among teens.
The COVID-19 hospitalization rate among unvaccinated adolescents was about 10 times higher than adolescents who were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to new data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Among adolescents aged 12-17 years, the only pediatric age group for whom a COVID-19 vaccine is currently approved, hospitalization rates were approximately 10 times higher in unvaccinated compared with fully vaccinated adolescents" during June 20 and July 31, said the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which was released on Friday.
The statistic indicates that the available coronavirus vaccines in the US "were highly effective at preventing serious COVID-19 illness in this age group during a period" when the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus "predominated," said the report.
The FDA hasn't yet approved a COVID-19 vaccine for children under the age of 12, but emergency authorization for children in that age group could come by winter, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has previously said.
The report, which analyzed data from hospitals in 99 counties across 14 states, stressed the importance of COVID-19 health and safety measures when dealing with young children.
"Implementation of preventive measures to reduce transmission and severe outcomes in children is critical, including vaccination of eligible persons, universal mask wearing in schools, recommended mask wearing by persons aged ≥2 years in other indoor public spaces and child care centers, and quarantining as recommended after exposure to persons with COVID-19," the report said.
Speaking during a White House coronavirus press briefing on Thursday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said, "What is clear from these data is community-level vaccination coverage protects our children. As the number of COVID-19 cases increase in the community, the number of children getting sick, presenting to the emergency room, and being admitted to the hospital will also increase."
"We must continue to vaccinate all of those who are eligible to protect our younger children from disease," she added.
The CDC report released Friday said that its findings were "subject to at least five limitations," including the fact that children and adolescents who tested positive for the virus "might have been hospitalized primarily for reasons other than COVID-19, resulting in potential overestimations of age-specific hospitalization rates," and the fact that the number of hospitalized children "with severe outcomes was small" during June 20 to July 31, "limiting comparisons between periods before and during Delta variant predominance."
As of July 31, 32% of US adolescents were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to the report.