Over the last seven days, 72.7% of cases of COVID-19 were in unvaccinated residents and 27.3% were in fully vaccinated residents.
As of Thursday there were 15,089 breakthrough cases of COVID-19 in vaccinated residents. An estimated 2.4 million residents have completed their vaccine series which means only 0.64% of fully vaccinated persons have contracted the virus and 144 have died. The deaths represent about 12% of all COVID-19 deaths since February 2021.
The Department of Public Health reported Thursday that unvaccinated individuals are five times higher risk of contracting COVID-19, 11 times higher risk of dying from it and 74 times higher risk of being hospitalized with it.
One hundred percent of the samples tested were the delta variant.
Nearly four weeks ago the U.S. Food and Drug Administration amended the emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to allow for use of a single booster to be administered to individuals over the age of 65, those at high risk of contracting COVID-19 and those who work in places that put them at serious risk of contracting it.
In Connecticut, the eligible population for the Pfizer-BioNTech booster amounts to more than 270,000 people, according to state officials.
Earlier this week a National Institutes of Health study, which has yet to be peer reviewed, found that people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine produced stronger antibody levels after they got booster shots made by Moderna or Pfizer, compared to boosters from Johnson & Johnson. Those who were originally vaccinated with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines and received either company’s booster shot produced similarly strong immune responses, the researchers found.
The findings will be presented today to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but no action is expected to be taken. The focus of the meeting will be whether to recommend emergency authorization of the Johnson & Johnson booster.
