A total of 10,262 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine breakthrough infections were reported among 101 million fully vaccinated individuals. (Credit: Getty Images.)
Among 101 million fully vaccinated individuals, a total of 10,262 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine breakthrough infections have been reported in 46 US states and territories as of April 30, 2021, according to a recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
For this report, vaccine breakthrough infection was defined as the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA or antigen in a respiratory specimen collected from an individual at least 14 days after receiving all recommended doses of an FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine. Among the 10,262 reported infections, over 60% occurred in females (n=6446) and the median patient age was 58 years (interquartile range, 40-74 years). Findings showed that 27% (n=2725) of the breakthrough infections were asymptomatic.
email article
Breakthrough infections following COVID-19 vaccination were rare, most were mild, and the majority of those sequenced came from variant strains of the virus, CDC researchers found.
Of the 5% of cases sequenced, 64% were identified as variants of concern, such as the U.K. and California variant strains (B.1.1.7 and B.1.429, respectively), according to Marc Fischer, MD, and colleagues from the CDC COVID-19 Vaccine Breakthrough Case Investigations Team, writing in an early edition of the
The team emphasized that more than 101 million people were vaccinated against COVID-19 from Jan. 1 to April 30, 2021, but breakthrough cases are expected, especially before population immunity reaches sufficient levels to further decrease transmission.