How many vaccinated people have caught COVID-19 in Fresno, Valley? Here’s what the data shows
From mid-January, when the first recipients of coronavirus shots in Fresno County were considered “fully vaccinated” against COVID-19, through Sept. 27, more than 48,000 residents have tested positive for the virus.
Of those laboratory-confirmed infections, fewer than 3,900 have been among people who were at least two weeks past completing their course of vaccinations – either a single shot of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine or the second dose of the two-shot Pfizer or Moderna products.
The rest of the cases – 44,315, or almost 92% of the total – have been among unvaccinated or partially vaccinated residents, according to data provided to The Bee from the Fresno County Department of Public Health’s epidemiology program.
“For those people who are vaccinated, we understand that breakthrough infections can happen,” Dr. Rais Vohra, interim health officer for Fresno County, said last week. “We understand that some people have frail immune systems.”
But, he added, illnesses serious enough to require hospitalization are rare. “People need to understand that it’s not just about not getting sick,” Vohra said. “It’s about not getting hospitalized. Your protection from being hospitalized is even greater than your protection from just catching COVID.”
That’s underscored by hospitalization figures for the third quarter of 2021 in Fresno County. Only 133 fully vaccinated people who later tested positive for the coronavirus were admitted to hospitals across the county for any reason from July through September, said Dr. Stephanie Koch-Kumar, senior epidemiologist for Fresno County, and community health director Mary Morrison.
By contrast, a database maintained by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services reveals that 1,800 adults were admitted to Fresno County hospitals with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infections over the same three-month period. The 133 breakthrough cases among the fully vaccinated represented only 7.4% of that total.
Vohra, who also works occasional emergency department shifts at Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno, said the proportions are similar for critically ill patients who are admitted to hospital intensive-care units – a ballpark average of 85% to 95% of ICU patients who are unvaccinated.
“But that speaks very highly that vaccines are quite effective,” Vohra said. “The risk of getting hospitalized after being vaccinated becomes ten-fold less.”
“Most people that are vaccinated, if they do happen to catch COVID and get a breakthrough infection, it’s a very mild case,” he added.
Cases across the Valley
In Fresno County along with neighboring Kings, Madera and Tulare counties, breakthrough infections represent about 7.5% of all confirmed COVID-19 cases since mid-January. Across the four-county region, health officials report fewer than 6,800 cases among the fully vaccinated among the total of almost 91,000 people who have become infected at some point from January through September.
Those include:
- Kings County: 775 cases among fully vaccinated residents, about 6.8% of the total 11,316 cases reported since mid-January.
- Madera County: 602 cases among the fully vaccinated, about 7.3% of the total 8,285 cases since mid-January.
- Tulare County: 1,527 cases among the fully vaccinated, about 6.6% of the total 23,020 cases since mid-January.
In Tulare County, “it’s important to note that we do not have data or information on how many of these breakthrough infections were symptomatic infections,” said Carrie Monteiro, a spokesperson for the Tulare County Department of Health & Human Services. “The data is only based on positive test results.”
“We have seen that a vast majority of severe illness of COVID are amongst people who are unvaccinated,” Monteiro added, “and rarely, if at all, seen from vaccinated breakthrough infections from COVID.”
This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "How many vaccinated people have caught COVID-19 in Fresno, Valley? Here’s what the data shows."
