Of the nearly 3.2 million people who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in Illinois, 771 contracted the disease anyway and 13 died, the Illinois Department of Public Health reports.
The number is a small fraction of the total number of diseases; that is 1,296,381 known cases and 21,630 deaths among Illinois residents since the pandemic began.
Referring to confidentiality reasons, IDPH officials declined to comment on whether the 13 who died had anything in common or health problems that could have made the vaccine less effective.
Recently, researchers discovered that individuals who had already suffered from an affected immune system or were using strong immunosuppressive drugs were more susceptible to serious consequences of the virus, even if they were fully vaccinated.
“What we do not know is the efficacy of these vaccines in individuals with an immune deficiency,” said Dr. Jonathan Pinsky, medical director of infection control and prevention at Edward Hospital in Naperville, said. “We need to learn from the numbers and find out more about these cases to determine what the threat is.”
Nationally, about 5,800 cases called ‘vaccine breakthroughs’ have been reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to data from last week cited in a recent NPR report. Among the breakthrough cases, federal officials reported 74 deaths.
People are considered fully vaccinated if they are outside their final doses of a vaccine for two weeks. In Illinois, 3,182,010 people meet the standard, nearly a quarter of the population, according to IDPH figures.
Those who became ill after being fully vaccinated represented less than 0.03% of the population, or one in every 4,127 people who were fully vaccinated.
Of the vaccinated who were infected, 29 were ill enough to be admitted to the hospital. This is a rate of one in every 109,724 individuals who are fully vaccinated. Those who died represent one in every 244,770 people who were fully vaccinated.
Clinical trials of the vaccines used against COVID-19 in the United States have shown at least 94% efficacy to prevent serious illnesses and deaths and approximately 80% effective in preventing COVID-19 infection.
Pinsky is concerned about how some of the breakthrough cases in fully vaccinated individuals are counted. Since the symptoms usually occur a few days after infection, someone diagnosed after the two-week threshold may be infected before the vaccine has been completely effective.
“There is potential for fewer breakthrough cases, the further you are from the second dose,” he said.
A total of 166,885 more doses of COVID-19 vaccine went into the arms of Illinois residents and workers Thursday, IDPH officials reported. This is the second highest number of vaccines administered by Illinois providers in a single day.
Vaccine doses administered in Illinois are at 7,779,290, with 3,453,704 in the counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will.
IDPH reported 3,866 new cases of COVID-19 and another 21 deaths due to the respiratory disease on Friday.
Illinois hospitals treat 2058 patients for COVID-19 on Thursday, 468 of whom are in intensive care.
The state’s seven – day average positivity rate is at 4.2%. It stayed at that level for three straight days. An important measure used to measure infection levels; case positivity follows the percentage of new cases obtained from a series of tests.