44,400 Breakthrough Cases Recorded In Indiana; 420 Fully Vaccinated Residents Have Died

Nearly 45,000 people in Indiana have been infected with COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated, with more than 400 dying from the virus, according to the state’s health department.

In the latest data published Thursday, 44,479 breakthrough COVID-19 cases have been recorded since the beginning of the pandemic — 5,303 more cases since the update on Sept. 30. The total number of cases represents 1.348% of the state’s fully vaccinated population.

Health officials also reported 420 breakthrough deaths since the start of the pandemic. At least 90% of the cases, or 378, occurred in people aged 65 and older, with the average age of deaths being 79.

The number of breakthrough deaths represents 0.013% of Indiana’s fully vaccinated individuals. It is unclear whether the patients who died had pre-existing medical conditions.

As of Thursday, Indiana health officials reported 907 breakthrough hospitalizations, representing 0.027% of the state’s fully vaccinated individuals.

Overall, Indiana recorded 987,164 COVID-19 cases between March 6, 2020, and Oct. 10, 2021, and a total of 15,542 deaths from March 16, 2020, through Oct. 2, 2021, according to data published Friday.

The agency’s dashboard also puts the state’s rolling seven-day positivity rate at 9.3%. The highly transmissible Delta variant was found in 98.3% of all the samples tested this month.

Despite the still-rising number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, Indiana’s vaccination rate has shown a steady decline in people receiving their first and second doses.

In late August, the state’s first- and second-dose COVID-19 vaccinated peaked at more than 12,000 per day. But as of Friday, the number dropped to an average of 6,080 first- and second-dose vaccinations daily.

“We are getting some that are coming in for their first and second dose, but the majority are the boosters,” Tracy Anderson, COVID-19 vaccine clinics manager for Community Health Network, told Fox 59. “I would say 80% at least are booster.”

Anderson added that her team is focusing on running vaccine clinics at schools to make them more accessible to students.

Indiana health officials have fully vaccinated 3,313,593 residents since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the health department’s dashboard.

The U.S. has so far reported 44,453,347 COVID-19 cases and 714,058 deaths, states Johns Hopkins University data.