27,530 Breakthrough Cases Recorded In Massachusetts In Just 1 Week

More than 27,000 breakthrough cases, or fully vaccinated people who tested positive for COVID-19, were reported in Massachusetts last week, health officials revealed Tuesday.

The 27,530 new infections brought the total number of breakthrough cases in the state to 422,132, which accounted for around 8.1% of Massachusetts' population of fully jabbed individuals (5,202,797), the Boston Herald reported, citing data provided by the state's Department of Public Health (DPH).

Last week's number of breakthrough cases was around 40% less compared to the 46,092 cases that the state reported the week before, according to the newspaper.

Meanwhile, the total number of fully vaccinated COVID-19-related fatalities in Massachusetts rose to 1,789 after taking into account the 290 newly reported deaths from breakthrough cases, a report by The Boston Globe said.

The deaths accounted for 0.03% of the state's population of fully vaccinated people.

State health officials have reportedly urged people to get their booster shots as soon as possible to get more protection against COVID-19's omicron variant.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claimed that the "case and death rates for people fully vaccinated with any of the three vaccine types (Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen) were much lower than for unvaccinated people."

Fully vaccinated people who received an additional or booster shot also "had lower case rates compared with those without an additional or booster dose," the agency noted.

Around 96.7% of breakthrough cases in Massachusetts did not result in hospitalization or death, according to a review released by the state's health department in December.

The number was even higher (99.9%) for fully vaccinated people under the age of 60.

"The data are clear. This review shows that fully vaccinated people in Massachusetts have near-universal protection from severe illness and death and that boosters are demonstrating even stronger protection from COVID," Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders was quoted as saying in a statement announcing the results of the review.

Acting DPH Commissioner Margret Cooke, for her part, said that vaccination "continues to be the most effective tool we have against omicron and all COVID-19 variants."

The United States has reported a total of 75,012,446 coronavirus cases and 884,853 deaths, according to data provided by the CDC.