COVID ‘breakthrough’ cases climbing in vaccinated Tri-Citians. New details released
About 15% of the confirmed COVID-19 cases in Benton and Franklin county residents last month were in people fully vaccinated against the disease, according to a new report.
It shows that the number of cases in people fully vaccinated — called breakthrough cases — were below 1% of all confirmed cases from January through March.
By June that increased to 6% and then up to 15% from July through September, with some cases in those months still being evaluated.
The rise of the more contagious delta variant is behind the increase in breakthrough cases, said Annie Goodwin, operations deputy chief for the Benton Franklin Health District.
The Tri-Cities area has had 2,280 confirmed breakthrough cases out of 22,100 total known cases since Jan. 17, according to the local health district’s recently released COVID-19 Vaccine Breakthrough Report.
Some 65% of the cases have been in Benton County residents and 35% have been in Franklin County residents.
The age group with the most cases, 447, or nearly 20% of breakthrough cases, are adults in their 40s.
Breakthrough cases are less than 10% in the oldest and the youngest residents.
Just under 10% of the breakthroughs are in people in their 70s and just 6% are in people in their 80s, even though seniors have the highest vaccination rates in Washington state.
The youngest group eligible for the vaccine, those ages 12 to 19, also accounted for a low percentage of breakthrough cases, just under 3%.
That age group has had less time to be vaccinated and has a lower vaccination rate than adults statewide, according to the Washington state Department of Health.
The report also looked at breakthrough cases by gender and race or ethnicity.
COVID breakthrough by ethnicity
Women accounted for almost 57% of the breakthroughs in Benton and Franklin counties.
The race and ethnicity was only known for 40% of local cases, with 29% of those in non-Hispanic whites and 8% in Hispanic residents.
About a third of the Benton and Franklin county population is Hispanic.
Breakthrough cases that have ended in deaths account for just under 8% of all deaths in Benton and Franklin counties since Jan. 17, according to the report.
Sixteen fully vaccinated residents of both counties have died of complications of COVID-19 out of 210 deaths in the same time period.
The report did not provide data on hospitalizations of people with breakthrough cases due to a lack of available information, it said.
It also did not draw conclusions for breakthrough cases based on age, gender, race or ethnicity, saying more analysis was needed to determine risk of vaccine breakthrough cases based on demographics.
Cases are considered breakthroughs if they occurred at least two weeks after a resident received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine or received their second Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, both of which require two doses. Two weeks are needed to develop maximum protection against the coronavirus.
People with confirmed cases of breakthrough COVID-19 may or may not develop symptoms, the report said.
COVID vaccination urged
Breakthrough cases were expected, Goodwin said.
“No vaccine is 100% effecting at preventing illness,” she said. “The purpose of the vaccine is to slow the spread and make the virus less deadly.”
All three brands of vaccines are doing a good job of that, she said.
Tri-Cities area hospitals have said the large majority of patients ill enough to be hospitalized are not vaccinated.
People who are vaccinated but still are infected with COVID-19 usually have a milder case.
They also are not sick for as long, Goodwin said. That benefits not only individuals who are vaccinated but society, since the virus has less chance to mutate and change to yet another variant.
Vaccines remain recommended and an extremely valuable tool against COVID-19, she said.
But people also should also wear masks in public, practice social distancing and stay home when sick, say public health officials.
This story was originally published October 11, 2021 at 12:58 PM.