More than 130 million Americans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and of those, at least 10,262 have reported breakthrough infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Breakthrough infections occur when people test positive for COVID-19 more than 14 days after receiving the second dose of either Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or Moderna vaccine, or the single dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Of those breakthrough infections, about 25% did not have symptoms and they were likely detected through routine testing, according to the CDC report released Tuesday.
About 955 people were hospitalized with the disease, and of those, nearly 33% were hospitalized for issues unrelated to COVID-19 or were asymptomatic.
Of all the cases, 2% (about 160 people) died, with 28 deaths were unrelated to COVID-19. The CDC did not report whether the people who died had underlying medical conditions or comorbidities such as obesity, diabetes, etc.
The CDC report also found that majority of the breakthrough infections were seen in women (63%) and patients aged 40 to 74 years.
However, the report warned that “these cases are likely an underestimate because most people who have been fully vaccinated aren’t being regularly tested,” according to NBC News.
The CDC has recently said that people who are fully vaccinated do not need a COVID-19 test, even if they get exposed to the virus unless they show symptoms.
The federal health agency has been working with state and local bodies to understand whether new variants are linked to breakthrough infections after vaccination. In fact, it has been found that several strains have played a key role in most of the breakthrough cases.
The authors of the report wrote, “The proportion of cases due to variants of concern has also been similar to the proportion of these variants circulating throughout the country.”
Dr. Carlos del Rio of the Emory University School of Medicine found the CDC report “reassuring.”
He said in an email, “Breakthrough infections will happen as vaccines are not 100 percent effective.”
Taking away a few things from the report, Dr. del Rio said, “Many breakthrough infections were asymptomatic, many hospitalized patients were there for reasons unrelated to the virus, and overall there were very few deaths.”
He said he would like to see more information on the cycle threshold of the breakthrough cases. A cycle threshold is a value that provides information on the amount of virus patients with breakthrough infections were carrying.
Dr. del Rio said he suspects that the cases would likely not be infectious because of low viral load despite testing positive. The article was published on NBC News.
