Fischer: Data shows there are benefits to coronavirus vaccination
In counties where the vaccination coverage rate is high the coronavirus infection rate is decreasing, confirming the effectiveness of the vaccine, Professor Krista Fischer said on Thursday.
Speaking to ETV's "Ringvaade", Fischer, a professor of mathematical statistics at the University of Tartu, discussed the infection rate - R - across the country.
R has been around 0.95 for several weeks, meaning the infection rate is not growing and is falling but this fall has been slow, Fischer said.
But the infection rate varies in different countries. In the largest county, Harju, it is between 0.8 and 0.9, but in Tartu and Ida-Viru counties it is over 1 and even as high as 1.2 in some places.
Looking at the number of infected people over 70 in both counties shows there has been very few in Tartu County but more than 50 in Ida-Viru County.
Fischer said the difference comes from vaccination coverage. In Tartu County more than 70 percent of the elderly are vaccinated, but only 38 percent in Ida-Viru County.
"Counties where more than 60 percent of people are vaccinated clearly have fewer infected people. Where vaccination is less, we also see more people infected," Fischer said.
Fischer also noted that even though the infection rate has fallen in Harju County there are still lots of unvaccinated elderly people.
"The more vaccinated people there are in one age group, the fewer people are infected. The data is now very convincing that there are benefits to vaccination. It is hoped that the more people are vaccinated, the less the virus will spread," Fischer said.
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Editor: Helen Wright