20% increase in breakthrough cases

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

IN THE WEEK between August 7 and August 14, almost 2,700 fully vaccinated people became infected with COVID-19 in Massachusetts, the Department of Public Health said Tuesday.

There have been a cumulative 12,641 breakthrough infections reported out of 4,415,936 fully vaccinated people as of Aug. 14, DPH said Tuesday — meaning that 0.29 percent of all fully vaccinated people have subsequently been infected with the coronavirus, up from 0.23 percent of the immunized population a week ago and 0.18 percent two weeks ago.

In the week from August 7 to August 14, DPH counted 2,672 new breakthrough infections, about a 20 percent increase over the 2,232 breakthrough infections reported the previous week.

A total of 496 people with breakthrough infections, or 0.01 percent of all vaccinated people, have been hospitalized and 124 fully vaccinated people, or 0.003 percent of people who have gotten vaccinated, have died of COVID-19, DPH said. In its most recent weekly report, DPH reported 51 new hospitalizations and 18 new deaths among fully vaccinated people.

The 2,672 newly-reported breakthrough cases represent nearly 40 percent of the state’s recent one-week total of new cases, based on the seven-day average of 995.1 new cases each day that DPH lists for August 14, the end of the seven-day period covered in DPH’s latest breakthrough infection report.

As it did last week, DPH cautioned Tuesday that there are probably more breakthrough infections and hospitalizations among fully vaccinated people than it counts and can report.