By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – There have been 385 people who contracted COVID-19 and seven who have died after being fully vaccinated in New Hampshire between Feb. 1 and July 1, according to Health and Human Services Spokesman Laura Montenegro.
“While the vaccines are very safe and effective, breakthrough cases are to be expected, as no vaccine is 100% effective at preventing illness,” Montenegro said in an email.
There have been a total of 33,882 cases of COVID-19 since Feb. 1 and 243 total deaths related to COVID-19 during that timeframe, she said.
New Hampshire is ranked seventh in the country for the percentage of the population that has been fully vaccinated at 56 percent by Becker’s Hospital Review. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest data said 55 percent of the state’s population has been fully vaccinated.
The state Department of Health and Human Services dashboard also said as of July 1, 55 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated.
All other New England states and Maryland had higher percentages of their populations fully vaccinated. Vermont ranked highest in the country with 66 percent of its population fully vaccinated.
Because the data on breakthrough infections is minimal, the state would not provide town-level data to protect the privacy of the individuals, Montenegro said.
“Vaccine breakthrough infections have occurred in people of all ages 12 and up, across all parts of the state, and in vaccine recipients of all types of vaccines (e.g. Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J),” Montenegro said.
Montenegro also said a hospitalizations comparison is not possible as the state stopped daily contact with every case during the fall surge.
“Since then, we’ve known if someone was hospitalized at the time the case was reported to us, but we aren’t able to determine if they required hospitalization after the initial case investigation was completed. As a result, DHHS is not able to provide the number of non-vaccinated individuals requiring hospitalizations. However, hospitals report all breakthrough hospitalizations and to date, there have been 20 hospitalizations involving fully vaccinated individuals,” she said.
The timeframe for breakthrough cases – meaning individuals who got COVID after being fully vaccinated – would approximately be the beginning of February, which is when the first residents were fully vaccinated, she said.
“Our online dashboard provides the most up-to-date data on those who have had at least 1 dose and those fully vaccinated,” she said.
As of Friday, 99,555 people have contracted COVID-19 in New Hampshire since the start of the pandemic last year and about 1 percent or 1,372 people have died. There are currently 181 positive cases.