Starting this week, OHA will resume publishing monthly totals of COVID-19 deaths by vaccination status in the Weekly Breakthrough Report. New data for the previous month will be added at the beginning of each calendar month. In August 2021, 94 (23.2%) out of 405 total COVID-19 deaths were breakthrough cases. In other words, four times as many COVID-19 deaths occurred in unvaccinated individuals as compared to fully vaccinated individuals. The proportion of vaccine breakthrough cases who died with COVID-19 has increased over time. This trend is likely attributed to several factors and may be associated with increased COVID-19 transmission in communities, increased disease severity associated with infection caused by the Delta variant and waning immunity over time in elderly populations. Breakthrough deaths are a result of more disease in the community caused by the Delta variant and the small decrease in vaccine effectiveness found among the elderly, especially among older residents in long-term care facilities, who were vaccinated early in the vaccination roll-out. All COVID-19 vaccines continue to provide very high protection against severe illness, including hospitalization and death.
