COVID-19 Breakthrough Cases Climbing in Connecticut, Nationwide

CONNECTICUT — The Connecticut Department of Public Health is reporting that as of Wednesday, 13,685 breakthrough cases of COVID-19 in the state have been identified.

A breakthrough case is one contracted by someone more than two weeks after they have completed their vaccine series.

Of the 2,343,473 persons who have had both jabs, 0.58 percent of Connecticut’s fully vaccinated persons have contracted the virus, up 0.04 percent from last week's report. Out of the 1,702 cases of COVID-19 recorded by DPH in the past seven days, 468, or 27.5 percent, were among residents who had already been completely vaccinated.

These deaths represent 10 percent of all COVID-19 deaths since Feb. 9, according to a DPH report, up a little over a half-percent from last week. Over 77 percent of the fatalities have been among patients 75 years of age and older.

Nationwide, as of Sept.27, 5,226 fully vaccinated people have died as a result of the virus, up from 4,493 last week. Eighty-six percent of them have been age 65 or older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

DPH recorded another 53 coronavirus-related deaths in the past week, bringing the state death toll to 8,629 from the start of the pandemic.

The charts above and below show the "relative risk," or the difference in risk when comparing rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated persons.

The latest data show unvaccinated residents have a 14-times higher risk of dying from the coronavirus, compared to the vaccinated. Their risk of hospitalization is 40 times greater.

Although coronavirus deaths in Connecticut have declined markedly since February, it is important to note that death — and hospitalization — rates have consistently been higher among unvaccinated persons compared to fully vaccinated persons.

The number of fully vaccinated people in Connecticut is growing, albeit slowly. Everyone age 12 and older in Canaan has been fully vaccinated for weeks, but the population there is only 1,053. In more urban and populous cities New Haven, Hartford and Bridgeport the fully vaccinated populations are at just 56, 47 and 52 percent, respectively.

A new vaccination age group tier will likely be added shortly, according to DPH Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani. During a news conference Wednesday, Juthani said she anticipates a coronavirus vaccine for children age 5-11 to be approved within the next several weeks, and that should change the recovery calculus somewhat. Dropping another group of 400,000-plus people into the state's vaccine eligibility pool should substantially reduce the number of residents who will come down with the virus, she said.

With 721 cases confirmed cases out of 33,342 tests taken, the daily positivity rate at the end of the week was 2.16 percent.

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 finished out the month on a slight uptick. There are currently 237 residents being treated for the virus inside Connecticut hospitals.

See Also: Deadly Mosquito Virus Found In Connecticut

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