The estimated effectiveness of the updated COVID-19 vaccine among people aged 60 and older in the Netherlands was 70.7% against hospitalization and 73.3% against intensive care unit (ICU) admission in fall and early winter 2023, according to a study published yesterday in Eurosurveillance.

Researchers at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment and University Medical Center Utrecht parsed data on hospitalizations with admission dates from October to December to estimate the effectiveness of the XBB.1.5 Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine among recipients of at least one previous vaccination. The study included 2,050 hospitalized adults aged 60 and older, 14.4% of whom had received the 2023 COVID-19 vaccine.