New data shows breakthrough COVID cases in Colorado surged from Omicron
COLORADO (KRDO) -- New data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment shows how vaccinated Coloradans were affected by the Omicron surge, with a big spike of breakthrough cases seen from Christmas 2021 onward.
The most recent data is as of the week of January 23, and shows 1,131 per 100,000 COVID-19 cases were people vaccinated, but hadn't yet gotten a booster. Those with their booster were lower, at 795 per 100,000 cases.
Still far in the lead though, were the unvaccinated with 1,875 per 100,000 cases, as you can see on the graph below.
But the State Epidemiologist insists, getting COVID-19 while vaccinated isn't the problem, since vaccines are not 100 percent effective at preventing infection. The real problem is that the unvaccinated are still much more likely to die from coronavirus.
"I really think the most important takeaway from that data is that we see substantial protection from booster doses for preventing severe illness," said Dr. Rachel Herlihy, State Epidemiologist. "Really incredible numbers in that risk difference associated with death or with hospitalization between those that have received booster doses and those that are unvaccinated. Individuals that are boosted -- have received that third dose -- are 56 times less likely to die of COVID-19 than individuals that are unvaccinated, and that's a really staggering difference of risk between those two populations. So again, booster doses, those third doses, really continue to be the best way to prevent severe disease outcomes."
The state’s data also tells us which vaccines saw the most breakthrough cases.
According to their numbers, those who got the Moderna shots were the highest population to get COVID-19, behind the unvaccinated. The next likely were those with Johnson & Johnson, and then Pfizer, as seen on the graph below. The brighter yellow line is those with J&J who did not get a booster, the other gold color is those who got J&J and a booster.
Colorado Public Health officials gave an update on COVID-19 statistics Thursday, as the Omicron wave appears to be waning.
Watch below:
