Officials: Limited ‘breakthrough’ cases show vaccine efforts working
As Connecticut nears 70 percent of its adult population who have received at least one COVID dose — a goal set for the nation to reach in July — the state for the first time on Friday released a detailed view of “breakthrough” infections.
Of the 242 breakthrough cases involving Connecticut residents who were fully vaccinated, 109 of them —
about 45 percent — experienced no symptoms, the state Department of Public Health said.
Three of the vaccinated people who contracted the disease later died, according to the agency.
“The main takeaway is that COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective and cases of infection after a person is fully vaccinated are very rare,” Acting DPH Commissioner Dr. Deidre Gifford said in a statement. “The best protection against severe illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19 is vaccination, and I strongly urge all eligible Connecticut residents who have not yet gotten vaccinated to do so.”
That comes as Connecticut stands at the threshold of having 70 percent of its adult population who have had at least one shot of the vaccine — nearly two months before the July 4 national goal set this week by President Joe Biden.
Connecticut, which was the first state to have 50 percent of its adult population fully vaccinated, continues to lead the way for inoculations.
State vaccination data released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed just under 2 million Connecticut adults have received at least one dose, representing 69.8 percent of the population over the age of 18.
Josh Geballe, the state’s chief operating officer, said there is a known lag in the CDC’s data, which he expects will reflect this weekend that Connecticut has surpassed the 70 percent threshold.
State data shows some Connecticut communities have already surpassed that point and are headed toward 80 to 90 percent vaccine coverage, while some high-need communities have only around 30 percent of residents vaccinated, noted Dr. Luke Davis, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health.
“We have all heard a lot about herd immunity over the last year, but most epidemiologists don’t think of it as a specific threshold, but as a concept to explain why vaccination benefits not only the
vaccinated but also their unvaccinated neighbors,” Davis said Friday.
He said public health officials and individuals should weigh three factors — whether everyone who will accept a vaccine has been completely vaccinated (and recently enough that they remain effective), whether the vaccines are effective against variants of the virus, and if community rates of infection remain low.
“If we check all of those boxes, we can gradually relax public health restrictions while we continue monitoring the situation,” he said.
Robert Hecht, his colleague at the Yale School of Public Health, expressed cautious optimism.
“I think we should give ourselves a little pat on the back, but then we should get out there and keep going further,” he said during a phone interview Friday.
He suggested life could return to normal when about 70 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, a recommendation that goes beyond Biden’s goal. At that point, people could feel comfortable going out, albeit with masks in crowded indoor social venues, he said.
However, Hecht said the state and the New England region are doing “extremely well” with vaccination despite a sluggish start.
“I just don’t think that we should be complacent and say that the job is done,” he added.
Connecticut's daily positivity rate stood at 1.39 percent Friday, according to the state's data, with 436 new infections reported out of 31,335 new tests. Hospitalizations fell by a net 15 patients, bringing the total to 309 statewide. There were six more deaths attributed to the virus, increasing the state's official death toll to 8,137.
Hecht said the low number of breakthrough cases compared with how many people have been fully vaccinated in the state shows “remarkable efficacy from the vaccine.” He theorized that closer investigation might reveal some infected people were not yet fullyimmunized or had other health issues, such as a compromised immune system.
The 242 cases were found out of nearly 1.5 million people who are now considered fully vaccinated in Connecticut. People are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after their final dose, according to the CDC.
The three deaths involved a person between the ages of 55 and 64, one between the ages of 65 and 74 and the third was over the age of 75, according to DPH. Nationally, 132 deaths have been reported in breakthrough cases, according to the DPH, citing statistics from
the CDC.
Of the breakthrough cases in Connecticut, nearly 66 percent involved women, while 24 percent were reported in people living in congregate settings, a category that includes long-term care facilities like nursing homes.
A total of 32 of the cases required hospitalization, DPH reported.
Davis noted that none of the vaccines in use are 100 percent effective against the disease.
“We don’t yet know all the reasons why this happens, but presumably there will be rare individuals whose immune systems don’t respond as well to vaccination,” he said. “More importantly, what we need to watch for over time is whether there are variants for which this seems to happen more often and if this happens more as time since vaccination increases, what that time threshold is.”