DC Health said in a press release Thursday that four individuals who are fully vaccinated have died of COVID-19 and the city has seen a 95 percent decline in COVID-related deaths since January 2021.
Health officials have identified 200 people who have had a “breakthrough” case, which account for less than one percent of the approximately 376,000 fully vaccinated District residents.
“Breakthrough COVID-19 cases” are the cases in which a fully vaccinated person tests positive for the infectious disease.
The figures come from comprehensive data released by Mayor Muriel Bowser and DC Health about breakthrough COVID-19 cases in the city through a new dashboard on coronavirus.dc.gov.
“As we get more data about fully vaccinated people, the message couldn’t be clearer: don’t wait, vaccinate,” Bowser said. “We know, and the data continues to show us, that the COVID-19 vaccines are incredibly effective, they are safe, they are keeping people out of the hospital, and they are saving lives.”
The COVID-19 vaccines have been found to be effective against the Delta Variant, as well, according to DC Health.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says nearly 45 percent of new cases stem from the Delta variant in HHS Region 3 that includes DC. The DC Public Health Lab and private laboratories sequenced 1,613 DC samples. Of those samples, 495 are B.1.1.7 (31 percent, Alpha), 27 are P.1 (2 percent, Gamma), 17 are B.1.351 (1 percent, Beta), and 16 are B.1.617.2 (1 percent, Delta).
However, Ankoor Shah with DC Health noted that no vaccine is 100 percent effective. “What I think is really remarkable if you look at our data of over 375,000 D.C. residents that were fully vaccinated, we’ve identified 200 who have had a breakthrough case. That is only 0.05%. Which just strengthens our confidence on how great these vaccines are.”
DC’s dashboard on breakthrough coronavirus cases provides information about:
- Total cases, broken down by week and type of vaccine
- Demographic data, broken down by age range, gender, race, and ethnicity
- Time since fully vaccinated
- Medical overview, including whether infected individuals were symptomatic or asymptomatic, whether individuals were hospitalized, and lives lost
To view the DC Health’s COVID-19 data dashboard, click here.