LANE COUNTY, Ore. — Four Oregonians contracted Coronavirus after being completely vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine, including two Lane County residents. Health experts warn that it could become more common with the variants that arose in the pandemic.
These cases are called ‘breakthrough cases’ and this means that they contracted the virus at least 14 days after completing their vaccination series. Officials said the other two cases came from Yamhill County.
Although both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are supposed to be up to 95% effective, there are still the 5% that may not be. Therefore, health officials said it is a serious but not surprising development.
“Both COVID-19 vaccines are very effective, but even with the vaccines that are 95% effective, some people will still get sick. It is common with all vaccines,” said Pat Allen, director of the Oregon Health Authority.
During a press conference on Friday, health officials said these cases were found through testing. The reason for this is because some of them had symptoms and that the others were tested for other reasons.
However, health officials said none of them had been admitted to hospital. Some had no symptoms at all, while others mild.
“No vaccine offers 100% protection and clinical trials of both vaccines are currently in use, including breakthrough cases. In all cases, participants received COVID, but the vaccines reduced the severity of the disease. Based on what we know about vaccines “For other diseases and early clinical trial data, experts believe that obtaining a COVID-19 vaccine can also help you become seriously ill, even if you become ill,” said Dr. Dean Sidelinger said.
OHA is working with our local and federal public health partners to investigate and determine the origin of the case. Although they do not expect these cases to be accompanied by more transferable variants, they said they want the data.
Therefore, they said that they are working with laboratories that do sequence, and they expect that they will only have some results next week.
However, health officials said we can expect more breakthrough cases in Oregon.
“To date, more than 160,000 Oregonians have received their second dose, and not all are two weeks away from their second dose, so this indicates a large number of people who may develop disease after full vaccination. But again, the data we see and show other states, we do not see serious diseases or hospitalizations in these people, our vaccination does work, “Sidelinger said.
Meanwhile, they said that vaccinating as many Oregons as possible was a critical goal in ending the pandemic.
Health officials want to reiterate the first chance you get that it is important to be vaccinated.
“The COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective. The benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks of getting COVID-19,” said the general surgeon, Dr. Mary Giswold, said.
Although the OHA was unable to provide details on where these cases came from, their age or when they received their last vaccine, they said that 2 of the 4 cases were related to a single place where a group exist.
Health officials have said that even if you are fully vaccinated, it is important that Oregon residents continue to take steps to protect themselves and their loved ones.