Fully Vaccinated & Boosted Saratoga Residents Show Much Lower Rate of Death, Hospitalization Against COVID

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga County residents who have been fully vaccinated and received a booster shot have experienced a significantly lower number of deaths over the past month and count as having far fewer hospitalizations currently than vaccinated residents without the booster and those who haven’t acquired full vaccination at all, according to COVID-19 data published by Saratoga County Public Health Services this week. 

Those lower death and hospitalization numbers of the fully vaccinated and boosted carry additional significance in light of their measuring as having the largest population of the three groups.    

With the emergence of the Omicron variant and a potential wane of vaccine effectiveness over time, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced in November that the organization was strengthening its guidelines by recommending adults get a booster shot 6 months after their initial Pfizer or Moderna series, or 2 months after receiving the single-shot J&J vaccine.

According to county and state data compiled from Dec. 22, 2021 to Jan. 23. 2022, about 93,000 of Saratoga County’s approximate 230,000 residents have been fully vaccinated and have received a booster shot. Of those, 1 died during the past month, and 7 are currently hospitalized. Comparatively, there have been 17 deaths and 31 hospitalizations of those fully vaccinated but not boosted, and 19 deaths and 37 hospitalizations of those not fully vaccinated over that same time period.