Local health departments calculating ‘breakthrough infections’ as Missourians become fully vaccinated
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Columbia/Boone County Health Department, the Cole County Health Department, and the St. Louis County Department of Public Health are calculating how many fully and partially vaccinated residents have tested positive for COVID-19.
Back in April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started asking health departments to gather information on "breakthrough infections," and counties across the state are seeing people test positive for COVID-19 after getting one or both doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
However, local health officials are encouraged by the low reports of "breakthrough infections," as well as hospitalizations and deaths.
Ashton Day with the Columbia/Boone County Health Department said they have recorded three hospitalizations from people who were fully vaccinated, post their two weeks of receiving the second vaccine. Day said the idea is to find out the rate of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths among vaccinated individuals.
"We know the vaccine adds a lot of protection for you, but it doesn't make you completely immune, so the main goal is to have a less severe illness if you get the infection," Day said. "That's what they are looking at, we know its effectiveness in clinical trials, what's this real-world data telling us now that a lot of folks are getting vaccinated."
The Columbia/Boone County Health Department is currently working on calculating fully vaccinated COVID-19 deaths.
Chezney Schulte, communicable disease coordinator for the Cole County Health Department, said calculations are underway in Cole County to find out how many vaccinated residents have COVID-19.
"For every Cole County case that tests positive, we have started going through them to see have they been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or have they initiated that vaccine series," Schulte said.
The CDC is looking into three main pieces of information when tracking "breakthrough infections." Including, the vaccine manufacture, what strain caused the "breakthrough infection," and the severity of the illness.
Schulte said breakthrough infections are expected, but the goal is even if they occur the illness is mild and there are fewer hospitalizations in the county.
In St. Louis, the largest county in the state, only 3 hospitalizations were recorded out of the 105 "breakthrough infections." James Hinrichs, the infections disease physician advisor for the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, said people should be encouraged by the low rate of "breakthrough infections."
"I think it should encourage people, because it goes to show how effective the vaccine is," Hinrichs said. "If there is a lot of virus in the community and people are still exposed to it and they are vaccinated very few of them are getting infected to the point were they either have symptoms or get hospitalized."
According to the state's COVID-19 dashboard, in Boone County, 43.8% of the population have initiated vaccination, 34.6% have initiated vaccination in Cole County, and 40% have initiated vaccination in St. Louis County.
