Have Previous COVID-19 Vaccinations Shaped the Potential Enhancing Infection of Variant Strains?

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the infection status of Omicron in the population and the association between COVID-19 vaccination and infection with Omicron. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study to openly recruit participants for a survey of SARS-CoV-2 infection by convenience sampling from 1 January to 15 January 2023 after a COVID-19 pandemic swept across China. Additionally, the binary logistic regression model was adopted to evaluate the association between COVID-19 vaccination and the infection outcomes or symptom severity, respectively. Meanwhile, the relations between the vaccination and duration of the symptoms were estimated via ordinal logistic analysis. Results: Of the 2007 participants, the prevalence of infection with Omicron was 82.9%. Compared with unvaccinated individuals, inactivated COVID-19 vaccination could increase the risk of Omicron infection (OR = 1.942, 95% CI: 1.093–3.448), and the receipt of at least one dose of non-inactivated COVID-19 vaccines was a protective factor against infection (OR = 0.428, 95% CI: 0.226–0.812). By contrast, no relations were observed in COVID-19 vaccination with the symptoms of infection and duration of symptoms (p > 0.05). Conclusions: This cross-sectional study concluded that inactivated COVID-19 vaccination might increase the risk of Omicron infection, which should be a concern during COVID-19 vaccination and the treatment of variant infections in the future, and the receipt of at least one dose of non-inactivated COVID-19 vaccine was a protective factor against infection.

Keywords

• SARS-CoV-2
• Omicron variant
• vaccination
• infection status