Number Of Breakthrough Cases For Fully Vaccinated People Remains Low Despite Rise in COVID-19 Cases

As cases and hospitalizations in Oklahoma have continued to climb, state health officials said there is positive news. The state's epidemiologist told News 9 the case count for those who are fully vaccinated is low.

If you tested positive for COVID-19 and fully vaccinated, it's called a breakthrough case.

In Oklahoma, that number continues to stay low, with more than 1,000 breakthrough cases out of the nearly 1.6 million fully vaccinated Oklahomans.

"We do have breakthrough cases that have occurred," said Jolianne Stone, the state's epidemiologist. "That is not uncommon with any vaccine."

Data reported to the Oklahoma State Department of Health showed the breakdown of breakthrough cases by vaccine brand.

Johnson & Johnson has the most at more than 102 breakthrough cases per 100,000.

Pfizer and Moderna are nearly neck and neck. Moderna, though, recorded the least amount of breakthrough cases at almost 57 cases per 100,000.

Among the breakthroughs, there were only a total of 107 hospitalizations and 14 deaths, Stone said.

Stone said individuals they interviewed who had breakthrough cases have been mild and most reported having a stuffy nose or a slight cough.

Though with the highly transmissible Delta variant, local doctors think we could see more breakthroughs.

"There have been three different studies that have looked at how effective current vaccines are," said Dr. Dale Bratzler, OU Health's chief COVID-19 officer. "The UK did a large study that showed 88% effectiveness of preventing symptomatic disease."

Bratzler said getting the vaccine dramatically reduces the chance of death to nearly 100%.

OU Children's at OU Health is holding a vaccine clinic this weekend for anyone over the age of 12. They will be giving out doses of the Pfizer vaccine. 

Click here to register. To ensure parking availability, participants are asked to not arrive more than 10 minutes before their scheduled appointment.