3,084 Post-Vaccination COVID-19 Cases Reported In CA

CALIFORNIA — At least 3,084 breakthrough cases of COVID-19 were detected in Californians who were fully vaccinated between Jan. 1 and April 28, officials from the California Department of Public Health told Patch.

That's an infection rate of roughly 0.024 percent of people who were fully vaccinated; the cases were counted out of some 13 million fully vaccinated people.

"Given no vaccine is 100% effective at preventing COVID-19, we expect to find more post-vaccination cases as we continue to look for them and as additional data are received," a department spokesperson wrote in an email.

Post-vaccination infections are officially recorded if a person tests positive for the coronavirus two weeks after receiving their final dose of Pfizer or Moderna or after getting the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

"Also, as more time passes and as more people are fully vaccinated, it is likely that additional post-vaccination cases will occur," officials said. "The number of post vaccination cases remains small."

Both Pfizer and Moderna were found to be around 90 percent effective at preventing mild to moderate cases of coronavirus. Pfizer was found to be 100 percent effective in preventing severe disease or death from coronavirus variants, according to Yale Medicine. Moderna was found to be around 94.1 percent effective at preventing infection in those who have never had the coronavirus.

Johnson & Johnson was found to be 72 percent effective overall, with 86 percent efficacy against severe disease.

The low number of breakthrough cases — which health professionals anticipated — is a good sign for the Golden State, as the state maintains one of the lowest infection rates in the country as of Monday: 1 percent.

But one of the main metrics linked to Gov. Gavin Newsom's plan to fully reopen California by June 15 was coronavirus-related hospitalizations.

To date, California has not released any information on post-vaccination hospitalizations or the severity of any known breakthrough cases.

Although health officials maintain that vaccination may make breakthrough illness less severe, some fully vaccinated people "will still be hospitalized and die," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"However, the overall risk of hospitalization and death among fully vaccinated people will be much lower than among people with similar risk factors who are not vaccinated," according to the CDC's website.

The federal agency said it is working with health departments across the country to investigate these cases. Researchers are currently looking for "unusual patterns" by examining cases by age, sex or underlying health conditions. So far, scientists have not found any unusual patterns, the CDC said.

To date, 9,245 breakthrough cases have been reported across the country as of April 27. Out of those cases, 2,525 were asymptomatic; 5,827 were women; and 4,245 were over the age of 60.

Out of more than 95 million people fully vaccinated in the country, 132 inoculated Americans died after falling ill from coronavirus. Some 835 were hospitalized.

Since these types of infections are rare, the CDC said it will shift to focus on investigating cases that send people to the hospital or result in death.

Health officials have repeatedly said that despite these cases, coronavirus vaccines are safe and effective at preventing severe bouts of COVID-19.

"The vaccines that are currently available are most effective at reducing more severe disease, such as illnesses resulting in hospitalization or death, which is consistent with the data we currently have on post-vaccination cases," CDPH officials said.

California Coronavirus Data As Of Monday

• 3,655,922 confirmed cases to date.

• 1,377 newly recorded confirmed cases Sunday.

• 1 percent is the seven-day positivity rate.

• 62,051,055 tests have been conducted in California.

• 61,241 COVID-19 deaths recorded since the start of the pandemic.

• 32,669,323 vaccine doses have been administered statewide.