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Most infections come from the Delta variant. Authorities said about three-quarters of those infected had been vaccinated.
Although she acknowledged that the high rate of cases among those vaccinated during the Provincetown outbreak raised questions about whether the Delta variant can be spread by those vaccinated, Walensky said some of the data was encouraging: there have been only seven hospitalizations as a result of the epidemic, and zero deaths.
“Our vaccines did exactly what they were meant to do: prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death. Additionally, as cases increased, local public health officials implemented a range of public health prevention strategies, including increased testing, finding contracts, and wearing indoor masks. , and within two weeks, the test positivity jumped from a peak of 15.1% to 4.6%, ”Walensky said. .
“Prevention strategies in public health are working,” she added.
Provincetown City Manager Alex Morse said on Monday the city was making big progress in tackling the COVID-19 cluster.
“We’re on track for containment,” Morse wrote in a Facebook post, adding that as of Monday, the total number of active cases among Provincetown residents had fallen to 59.
He said the number of people recovering from the virus each day “far exceeds” the number of new cases reported.
According to Morse, the test positivity rate fell from a high of 15% on July 15 to a “new low” of 3.3% on Saturday and 4% on Sunday.
The CDC report looked at 469 cases of COVID-19 identified among Massachusetts residents who traveled to Provincetown between July 3 and July 17, including 346 people who were fully vaccinated. About 274 of those vaccinated with breakthrough infections experienced symptoms, most often a cough, headache, sore throat, muscle pain and fever.
Dr Anthony Fauci echoed Walensky’s comments and said that even when breakthrough infections do occur in people who are vaccinated, symptoms are usually mild.
“We’ve seen it before in the Massachusetts experience, in Provincetown, and we’re seeing it in all other situations,” Fauci said.
Public health officials have continuously stressed that breakthrough infections are rare and that vaccinated people who contract the virus are unlikely to become seriously ill.
“What is quite clear is that vaccines work. There were only a few hospitalizations and there were no deaths. In addition, the epidemic was quickly brought under control, ”Sam Scarpino, director general of pathogen surveillance at the Rockefeller Foundation, said in an email.
“Given the high case rates in the United States, we need to focus on NPI [non-pharmaceutical interventions], p. eg, masking and testing, to ensure that unvaccinated children and people with health conditions that prevent vaccination and / or the development of full immunity are protected. However, even against Delta, vaccines protect people against serious disease and interrupt transmission, ”said Scarpino, affiliate professor at Northeastern University.
The United States is grappling with a rapid increase in coronavirus cases due to the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, especially in areas of the country where vaccination rates are relatively low.
“While we desperately want to end this pandemic. COVID-19 is clearly not done with us, ”Walensky said, urging people to get vaccinated.
Christina Prignano can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @cprignano. Travis Andersen can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TAGlobe.
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