Deaths among people who contract the coronavirus after being vaccinated, known as “breakthrough cases,” are low, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.
The CDC found 160 deaths due to breakthrough cases between the beginning of the vaccination campaign in December and April 30. That is just 2% of the more than 10,000 total breakthrough cases tallied by the CDC during those months and only 0.0002% of the 101 million people who had been fully vaccinated by the end of April.
“Even though FDA-authorized vaccines are highly effective, breakthrough cases are expected, especially before population immunity reaches sufficient levels to further decrease transmission,” the CDC said in the report Tuesday.
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It is likely the total number of breakthrough cases is higher than the CDC’s tally, as many cases that are asymptomatic or have few symptoms may never be reported.
The median age of breakthrough cases was 58, and nearly two-thirds of the cases were women, according to the CDC. About 995 breakthrough cases had to be hospitalized, the report said, although the CDC noted 289 of those people were hospitalized for reasons unrelated to COVID-19, only discovering they had COVID-19 after being tested.
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In addition, the CDC found a majority of the breakthrough cases, 64% of a sample of 555 cases, were variants of COVID-19. The most common was B.1.1.7, the United Kingdom variant, occurring in 199 cases. Another 116 cases were of the two California variants, B.1.427 and B.1.429.
Clinical trials and health studies have shown some variants can evade the protections offered by vaccines.