Of the nearly 3.2 million people completely vaccinated against COVID-19 in Illinois, 771 have suffered from the disease anyway and 13 have died, Illinois Department of Public Health officials report.
The figure is a small fraction of the total disease, which is 1,296,381 known cases and 21,630 deaths among Illinoisans since the pandemic began.
Citing reasons of confidentiality, IDPH officials would not comment on whether the 13 who died had anything in common or had health issues that could make the vaccine less effective.
Recently, researchers have found that people who already suffered from compromised immune systems or who were taking strong immunosuppressive drugs were more susceptible to severe virus outcomes, even if they had been completely vaccinated.
“What we don’t know is the effectiveness of these vaccines in immunocompromised individuals,” said Dr. Jonathan Pinsky, medical director of infection control and prevention at Edward Hospital in Naperville. “We need to learn from these figures and learn more about these cases to determine what the threat is.”
Nationwide, 5,800 cases called “vaccine advances” have been reported at U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to data from last week cited in a recent NPR report. Among these advanced cases, federal officials reported 74 deaths.
People are considered to be fully vaccinated when they exceed two weeks of their final vaccine doses. In Illinois, 3,182,010 people meet this standard, nearly a quarter of the population, according to IDPH data.
Those who have become ill after being fully vaccinated represent less than 0.03% of this population, or one in 4,127 people who have been completely vaccinated.
Of the infected vaccinators, 29 were ill enough to be hospitalized. It is a rate of one in 109,724 fully vaccinated individuals. The deaths represent one in every 244,770 people completely vaccinated.
Clinical trials of vaccines used against COVID-19 in the United States showed at least 94% efficacy in preventing serious illness and death and 80% efficacy in preventing COVID-19 infection. .
Pinsky was concerned about how some of the advanced cases were counted in fully vaccinated individuals. Because the onset of symptoms usually occurs a few days after infection, someone diagnosed after the two-week threshold could have been infected before the vaccine was fully effective.
“There is a possibility that there will be fewer advanced cases as you are from this second dose,” he said.
In all, 166,885 more doses of COVID-19 vaccines passed into the arms of Illinois residents and workers Thursday, IDPH officials reported. It is the second highest number of vaccines Illinois providers have administered in a single day.
Vaccine doses administered in Illinois are 7,779,290, with 3,453,704 in the suburban counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will.
On Friday, IDPH reported 3,866 new cases of COVID-19 and 21 more deaths from respiratory disease.
Illinois hospitals treated 2,058 patients for COVID-19 on Thursday, with 468 of them in intensive care.
The average seven-day positivity rate for state cases is 4.2%. It stays at this level for three days in a row. A key metric used to measure infection levels, case positivity tracks the percentage of new cases derived from a batch of tests.