Prioritisation of elderly people in COVID-19 vaccination campaigns aimed at reducing severe outcomes in this group. Using EU/EEA surveillance and vaccination uptake, we estimated the risk ratio of case, hospitalisation and death notifications in people 80 years and older compared with 25-59-year-olds. Highest impact was observed for full vaccination uptake 80% or higher with reductions in notification rates of cases up to 65% (IRR: 0.35; 95% CI: 0.13-0.99), hospitalisations up to 78% (IRR: 0.22; 95% CI: 0.13-0.37) and deaths up to 84% (IRR: 0.16; 95% CI: 0.13-0.20).

Area Immunisation Programme Ministry of Health Madrid Spain

Data analysis department Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic Prague Czechia

Department of Communicable Diseases Health Board Tallin Estonia

Department of Epidemiological Surveillance and Intervention of the National Public Health Organization Athens Greece

Department of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology National Institute of Public Health Prague Czechia

Directorate of Information and Analysis Directorate General of Health Lisbon Portugal

Epidemiology Unit Regional Health Agency of Tuscany Florence Italy

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control Solna Sweden

Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare Helsinki Finland

Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate Msida Malta

Health Protection Surveillance Centre Dublin Ireland

Ministry of Health Nicosia Cyprus

National Epidemiology Centre CIBERESP Institute of Health Carlos 3 Madrid Spain

National institute of Public Health Ljubljana Slovenia

National Public Health Centre Vilnius Lithuania

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