Pennsylvania's health department is not keeping count of all breakthrough COVID-19 cases — those that occur among vaccinated residents. That means a lack of real-world data to demonstrate vaccine efficacy, and could conceal signs of a surge in cases among already vaccinated individuals, experts told The Philadelphia Inquirer in a June 24 article.
"It's essential for people who are unvaccinated to really see the data [and] at how high a risk they are of contracting COVID-19 right now," Jennifer Horney, PhD, an epidemiologist at the University of Delaware in Newark, told the news outlet. "We have 95 percent or more of cases in most states being in unvaccinated people. … We need to tell this story."
While the state does report COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths among vaccinated people, as required by the CDC, breakthrough cases that are mild or asymptomatic may slip through the cracks.
Despite a lack of concrete data, experts told the Inquirer the state's breakthrough case numbers are likely similar to those in other states. An analysis conducted by the news outlet estimates 3 percent of COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania from March 5 to June 21 occurred among fully vaccinated people.
A spokesperson for the state's health department told the Inquirer it doesn't currently report all breakthrough cases because it's focused on providing other data it has routinely made available throughout the pandemic, adding that the state's vaccination and hospitalization data are not linked. Therefore, determining how many COVID-19 patients are vaccinated would be a labor-intensive effort.
Later this year, the health department said it plans to analyze vaccination status and COVID-19 cases, and is reviewing whether it would be possible to require hospitals to report whether its COVID-19 patients are vaccinated.
As of June 21, the CDC has received 4,115 reports of breakthrough cases that resulted in hospitalization or death. More than 150 million people in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated as of June 21.
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