LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Nevada health authorities report 96 cases of people infected with COVID-19 after becoming fully vaccinated, and investigators are researching if variants could be a factor.
The 96 cases documented by the Office of Public Health Investigations and Epidemiology.
In this Wednesday, March 3, 2021 file photo, a pharmacist holds a vial of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Bay Shore, N.Y. Janssen Pharmaceuticals is a division of Johnson & Johnson.
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
“The COVID-19 vaccines are effective in preventing severe illness, hospitalization and death 97-100% of the time, but it is not unexpected that there will continue to be some positive cases among those who have been vaccinated because the vaccines are effective against preventing COVID-19 infection 70-95% of the time,” said Shannon Litz of the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.
Across the U.S., the CDC has documented 5,814 cases of COVID-19 after full vaccination, two weeks past the second dose of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines or the single Johnson & Johnson shot.
“The vaccines are 95% effective. But that means for every 100 people, they’re going to be five people that are going to have breakthrough disease. And so it’s not unexpected,” said Dr. Mark Riddle of UNR School of Medicine.
Scientists across Nevada and the U.S. are studying if variants could be a factor.
“That’s going to take everybody getting vaccinated, whether you’re young and old, to stop the transmission and to prevent the these variants from emerging,” Dr. Riddle said.
