Arizona investigating 298 COVID-19 cases among vaccinated people

PHOENIX — The Arizona Department of Health Services said Thursday it was investigating 298 cases of COVID-19 among individuals who had received the vaccine.

Holly Poynter, an ADHS public information officer, told KTAR News 92.3 FM in an email that no deaths have been reported due to the breakthrough infections.

“We are working to identify patterns or trends in patient characteristics, the administered vaccine or variant strains,” Poynter said.

A person is confirmed with vaccine breakthrough if they test positive for COVID-19 using a PCR test or antigen test and received their final dose of the vaccine over two weeks before the positive test.

The 298 cases represent 0.0167% of people who had been fully vaccinated in Arizona as of Thursday.

The state health department reported 1,775,554 fully vaccinated people. A total of 2,632,267 people have received at least one dose, about 36.6% of the state’s population.

“While no vaccine is 100% effective, we continue to encourage all Arizonans to get vaccinated against COVID-19,” Poynter said. “Vaccines are a safe and effective public health tool, critical to stopping the spread of illness and preventing severe disease and death from COVID-19.”

CNN reported Thursday that about 5,800 infections have been reported from the 77 million fully vaccinated people in the U.S., with 74 deaths and 396 hospitalizations.

“To date, no unexpected patterns have been identified in case demographics or vaccine characteristics,” the CDC told CNN via email.

Arizona has reported 851,725 COVID-19 infections and 17,123 fatalities since the pandemic started.

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