Breakthrough COVID-19 cases expected to become more common in coming months

Breakthrough COVID-19 cases expected to become increasingly common Experts blame the rise of the delta variant and declining efficacy of coronavirus vaccines but say there is no need for alarm. Roll Call

A breakthrough case of COVID-19 occurs when a person contracts COVID-19 at least two full weeks after the final dose of the vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks only breakthrough cases that result in hospitalization or death, as these incidences are both serious and very rare.

COVID-19 cases are up to five times more common in unvaccinated individuals compared with the vaccinated, according to the CDC. But state-level data shows that milder breakthrough cases that do not result in hospitalization are on the rise among the fully vaccinated as virus transmission increases and vaccine efficacy decreases. And they’re expected to keep increasing.

“It’s likely that everybody will probably get infected with COVID-19 [at some point] because it’s an endemic respiratory virus. The goal is to make sure that at that time, that infection occurs after you’ve been vaccinated so it’s mild,” said Amesh Adalja, a doctor and infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

A mild breakthrough infection counts as any case of COVID-19 in a fully vaccinated person that does not require hospitalization. Fortunately, these are the vast majority of breakthrough cases, and for some, they are asymptomatic. ...