A new large study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that COVID-19 vaccines offer strong protection against hospitalization and death and that unvaccinated people were 11 times more likely than vaccinated people to die from the disease.

The study, looking into over 600,000 COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in 13 states between April and mid-July, also found that unvaccinated people were about 4.5 times more likely to contract the virus and more than 10 times more likely to be hospitalized.

"Vaccination works and will protect us from the severe complications of COVID-19," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on Friday.

(With input from agencies)