While state health officials say the COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective in preventing serious illness, they continue to track breakthrough cases.
Indiana State Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lindsay Weaver stated in a press conference Friday afternoon that COVID-19 has affected a small number of fully vaccinated individuals.
“Although the number of breakthrough cases has increased, they still account for less than one-half of one percent of all fully vaccinated individuals,” said Dr. Weaver. “Hoosiers age 50 and older continue to represent 60 percent of all breakthrough cases. The number of breakthrough hospitalizations represents 0.008 percent of those who are fully vaccinated, and the number of those admitted to the ICU is 0.001 percent of fully vaccinated Hoosiers.”
She added unvaccinated Hoosiers have an extreme disadvantage when it comes to contracting COVID-19.
Dr. Weaver continued, “Out of nearly 1,300 patients admitted for COVID, only seven were vaccinated. These trends are also holding true for individuals admitted to intensive care units. Your odds of needing the ICU due to COVID-19 are much greater if you are not vaccinated than if you are fully vaccinated. Just one Hoosier who was fully vaccinated was admitted to the ICU out of the 205 ICU admissions. The remaining 204 were unvaccinated.”
Dr. Weaver and State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box encourage residents to protect themselves against COVID-19 and the Delta variant. Dr. Box suggests layered mitigation.
“Layered mitigation is the answer to this,” Dr. Box stated. “Number one, get vaccinated so that maybe we can decrease any further surges the rest of this fall into the beginning of next year. Number two, most importantly, is that layered mitigation where we wear masks when we are in large groups and we are inside.”
COVID-19 testing locations can be found at www.coronavirus.in.gov and vaccination locations and information can be found at www.ourshot.in.gov, or by calling 211.
