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Nearly 8,000 fully vaccinated Massachusetts residents have now tested positive for COVID-19 and 100 of them have died, according to state data on groundbreaking cases released on Tuesday.
The Department of Public Health has tracked a cumulative 7,737 confirmed COVID-19 infections among fully vaccinated people in the state as of July 31, representing 0.18 percent of the vaccinated population.
The 100 deaths out of nearly 4.3 million vaccinated inhabitants represent a rate of only 0.002%.
Saturday’s cumulative count reflects an increase of 1,364 breakthrough cases from July 24. This represents just over 30% of all new confirmed coronavirus cases in the state during this week.
Since the first residents were fully vaccinated in January, DPH has counted 395 vaccinated residents hospitalized with cases of COVID-19 and 100 who have died from the virus. Those figures include 34 breakthrough new hospitalizations and nine more deaths among fully vaccinated people followed over the past week.
Michael Genereux, who tested positive for COVID-19 after being fully vaccinated and visiting Provincetown, describes the illness he has been experiencing since last week.
The overall number of cases has been on the rise in Massachusetts and across the country for weeks as the more infectious delta variant spreads, including among those who are fully vaccinated, but health experts have pointed out to several Repeated vaccinations reduce the risk of serious injury or death in the rare breakthrough cases.
Health officials reported 883 more confirmed cases of the coronavirus – the most in a single day since early May – and two new deaths on Tuesday, while the rate of positive tests exceeded 2.5%.
The report pushed the state’s number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 675,425 since the start of the pandemic and its death toll to 17,718. The last time more than 883 COVID cases were reported in one day was May 6.
Tufts Medical Center epidemiologist Dr. Shira Doron says public health experts still have a lot to learn about COVID-19.
“The models went out of the window, the mathematical models, in terms of direction, don’t help us predict anything anymore,” she said.
We are seeing more and more cases of the breakthrough coronaviruses popping up in Massachusetts, and with the delta variant spreading across the country, people are getting nervous. Doctors urge caution while advising people to keep things in perspective.
Doron says that while the breakthrough cases are of concern, they are not as much as the need for vaccination around the world.
“We have to put some of these numbers in a more realistic context just so that people – you know, so people don’t panic, so people make the right decisions based on the real risk,” Doron said.
Authorities say most of the new cases, and particularly serious infections, are unvaccinated.
“Before delta, we were hoping we had seen the worst of what the virus could do in terms of mutation,” Doron said.
Now, with the “delta plus” variant detected in smaller numbers, she says watching this pandemic on a global scale is more important than ever.
“When we allow it to rage uncontrollably in other parts of the world and don’t get them vaccinated, the virus will continue to mutate,” she said.
The DPH previously released data on breakthrough infections in response to requests for registration, and on Tuesday it released those figures for the first time as part of the immunization report it publishes every day of the week.
The department said it plans to continue including updated breakthrough figures in Tuesday’s immunization reports.
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