71 fully vaccinated people died, 268 hospitalizations

At least 71 people who were fully vaccinated in Massachusetts have died after testing positive for a breakthrough case, state health officials say.

New data from the state’s Department of Public Health has revealed more information about groundbreaking COVID vaccine infections, including:

• As of June 19, a total of 3,907 cases of breakthrough have been reported to the DPH. As of that date, nearly 4.1 million Bay State residents were fully immunized.
• Of the 3,907 breakthrough infections, a total of 71 people died and 268 people were hospitalized.
• For more information: 216 people were hospitalized; 52 were hospitalized and later died; and only 19 people died (without going to hospital).

The Herald received this data as part of a public records request.

The first people in Massachusetts were fully vaccinated in early January. Since then, there have been 5,057 deaths from COVID, including 4,986 unvaccinated and 71 fully vaccinated.

Additionally, there have been a total of 297,753 COVID cases since then, including 293,846 unvaccinated people and 3,907 fully vaccinated people.

“These numbers show the reason for getting vaccinated,” said Todd Ellerin, director of infectious diseases at South Shore Health. “It’s amazing actually. It is breathtaking.

“At the end of the day, people who are not vaccinated really have a dramatically increased risk of becoming delta factories,” he added. “There is a significantly higher risk to themselves and a risk of transmission to others.”

There have been reports of immunocompromised people possibly needing a third dose of the vaccine, noted Davidson Hamer, an infectious disease specialist at Boston University.

“It would be important for the state to analyze whether these hospitalized and deceased people were immunosuppressed, whether they had underlying conditions or some sort of other risk factor,” he added.

Hamer said he was “surprised” to see this number of serious cases, hospitalizations and deaths.