New Delhi: Only 77 out of over 87 million people who got vaccinated in the US till 20 April died due to Covid, according to data collected by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), the country’s national public health agency.
The data shows that vaccines reduce hospitalisation and deaths in Covid cases.
A total of 32,875,045 people in the US have been infected with Covid-19 so far — the highest number of infections in the world. The US’ death toll is also the highest in the world — as many as 5,86,611 people have died in the country due to Covid.
The CDC, on its website, revealed that as of 20 April, more than 87 million people in the US had been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. During this time, the CDC received reports of vaccine breakthrough infections from 45 US states and territories.
According to the data collected by CDC, 7,157 people who were vaccinated tested positive for Covid — 31 per cent of these were asymptomatic infections. As many as 3,265 of these infections occurred in those above 60 years of age.
Of these, 498 people were hospitalised, of which 167 were not related to Covid. One per cent (88 people) of those infected with Covid have died so far. Of these deaths, 11 were reported to be not linked to Covid.
In contrast, nearly 1.8 per cent of the total infected people in the US have died of Covid. This shows that risk of dying from from SARS-CoV-2 virus may be up to 80 per cent higher in the unvaccinated population.
Vaccinated people should continue to follow protocols
Vaccine breakthrough cases are expected and occur in only a small percentage of vaccinated persons.
“To date, no unexpected patterns have been identified in the case demographics or vaccine characteristics among people with reported vaccine breakthrough infections,” CDC said, adding that all eligible people get a Covid-19 vaccine as soon as one is available to them.
Vaccines manufactured by Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson are currently available to US citizens. Large-scale trials for AstraZeneca and Novavax vaccine are also underway.
While Covid vaccines are effective and critical to bring the pandemic under control, there will be a small percentage of people who are fully vaccinated who still get sick, are hospitalised, or die from Covid-19.
However, such cases are rare, as the CDC data shows.
CDC also recommends that fully vaccinated people should continue to adhere to Covid-19 related safety protocols, such as wearing a mask, maintaining appropriate social distance from others, avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces, and washing their hands often.
Subscribe to our channels on YouTube & Telegram
Why news media is in crisis & How you can fix it
India needs free, fair, non-hyphenated and questioning journalism even more as it faces multiple crises.
But the news media is in a crisis of its own. There have been brutal layoffs and pay-cuts. The best of journalism is shrinking, yielding to crude prime-time spectacle.
ThePrint has the finest young reporters, columnists and editors working for it. Sustaining journalism of this quality needs smart and thinking people like you to pay for it. Whether you live in India or overseas, you can do it here.