To learn more about the groundbreaking cases of COVID-19, we sat down with infectious disease expert Steven Gordon, MD. It explains what they are, why they happen, and whether vaccines are still effective (spoiler: they really, really are). Currently, health departments can share COVID-19 case data with vaccine history with vaccine history at the CDC via one of three data streams (in descending order preferably from the CDC): In addition, “you see massively 80% of patients who have the omicron variant are not vaccinated and need to be hospitalized,” he said. That`s why everyone should get vaccinated – because even if you`re immunocompromised and get a breakthrough infection, that infection would be mild compared to a normal infection. The CDC has several surveillance systems and ongoing research studies to monitor the performance of vaccines in preventing infections, diseases, hospitalizations, and deaths. The CDC also collects data on breakthrough vaccine infections through outbreak testing. For people with a breakthrough infection, their symptoms are likely to be mild. However, if this is not the case, it is important that you contact your doctor. A study conducted in Washington State collected data from more than 4 million people who were fully vaccinated. The data showed that a rate of about 1 in 5,000 experienced a revolutionary infection between January 17 and August 21, 2021. More recently, some populations have shown breakthrough infection rates of about 1 in 100 fully vaccinated people. Unvaccinated case: SARS-CoV-2 RNA or antigen detected in a respiratory sample of a person who has not been shown to have received doses of COVID-19 vaccine prior to the date of sample collection.
As part of the CDC`s ongoing efforts to understand the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, the CDC is monitoring vaccine effectiveness and rates of breakthrough infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. The omicron variant, which first reached the United States in December 2021, has since spread rapidly, contributing to an increase in breakthrough cases. The CDC says it believes anyone with omicron infection can transmit the virus to others, even if they are vaccinated or asymptomatic. We note that several factors are likely to affect crude drop rates by vaccination and booster dose status, which may call into question the interpretation. Recent CDC data on breakthrough cases suggests that “vaccines work well,” Clark added. The CDC is also interested in obtaining sequence data on the SARS-CoV-2 lineage in cases in people vaccinated with a primary series with and without booster doses. If SARS-CoV-2 sequencing is not performed on-site and a sample is available, the state health laboratory may request that the remaining clinical airway sample be delivered to the CDC. See instructions for submitting and sending samples to the CDC for sequencing. Best practices for accurately interpreting cases, hospitalizations, and deaths by vaccine status “The variants we identified in the breakthrough cases were very similar to those we identified in our nationwide stress surveillance. There were no red flags,” Clark said. “What we`re learning from vaccine efficacy trials is that vaccines protect well against strains circulating in the United States.” As of April 30, 2021, approximately 101 million people in the U.S.
had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.¶ However, during the surveillance period, transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has continued at high levels in many parts of the country, with approximately 355,000 cases of COVID-19 reported nationwide during the week of April 24-30, 2021.** Although FDA-approved vaccines are highly effective, Breakthrough cases are expected, especially before population immunity reaches a level sufficient to further reduce transmission. However, groundbreaking infections occur in only a small fraction of all vaccinated people and account for only a small percentage of all COVID-19 cases (5-8). The number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths averted among vaccinated people will far exceed the number of vaccine breakthrough cases. To date, the age and sex distribution of reported breakthrough vaccine infections reflects the fully vaccinated U.S. population.†† The proportion of breakthrough vaccine infections reported due to worrisome variants was also similar to the proportion of these variants circulating in the United States. From March 28 to April 10, 2021, the above dubious variants accounted for 70% of the weighted estimates of SARS-CoV-2 lines under CDC national genomic surveillance.§§ The three COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.S. – from Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) – do exactly what they should do: protect against serious illness and hospitalization. But with the highly transmissible omicronic variant of SARS-CoV-2 spreading rapidly, the United States is seeing more and more breakthrough infections with the COVID-19 vaccine. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many health services have developed the capacity to systematically link data from COVID-19 case surveillance and the Immunization Information System (IBS) to monitor cases and deaths by vaccine status. This page provides information and resources to help health services report COVID-19 case and death rates based on vaccination status.
It also provides advice to health services interested in reporting their data to the CDC. Hospitalizations associated with COVID-19 by vaccination status are reported separately through the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET). If you suspect that you might have a breakthrough in COVID-19, remember that if you are infected, you can transmit the coronavirus to another person.