(AP Photo / Fareed Khan)
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 educator, said KTAR News 92.3 FM in an email that no deaths were reported from the breakthrough infections.
“We are working to identify patterns or trends in patient characteristics, the vaccine administered or variant strains,” said Poynter.
A breakthrough in the vaccine is confirmed when a person tests positive for COVID-19 using a PCR test or antigen test and has received the last dose of the vaccine more than two weeks before the positive test.
The 298 cases represent 0.0167% of people fully vaccinated in Arizona on Thursday.
The state health service reported 1,775,554 fully vaccinated people. In total, 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,” said Poynter. “Vaccines are a safe and effective public health tool, critical to halting the spread of disease and preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19.”
CNN reported on Thursday that approximately 5,800 infections have been reported out of 77 million fully vaccinated people in the US, with 74 deaths and 396 hospitalizations.
“To date, no unexpected patterns in demographics or vaccine characteristics have been identified,” the CDC told CNN via email.
Arizona has reported 851,725 COVID-19 infections and 17,123 deaths since the start of the pandemic.