660 Fully Vaccinated Oregon Residents Died Of COVID-19

KEY POINTS

No breakthrough COVID-19 deaths were recorded in the 10-19 and 0-9 age groups
Health officials also recorded 2,567 breakthrough cases over the past week
Overall, Oregon has reported more than 53,600 breakthrough infections

More than 650 fully vaccinated residents in Oregon have died of COVID-19 as case numbers across the state continue to increase amid the spread of the Omicron variant.

Since Oregon first launched its COVID-19 vaccination program in December 2020, health officials have recorded a total of 660 breakthrough deaths among its fully vaccinated population. Vaccine breakthrough cases are defined by instances in which an individual tests positive for COVID-19 at least two weeks after getting fully vaccinated.

Of the 660 inoculated people who died of the novel coronavirus, 353 were aged 80 and older, 170 were aged 70-79, 99 were aged 60-69, 25 were aged 50-59, 10 were aged 40-49, 2 were aged 30-39 and 1 was between the ages of 20 to 29. As of Wednesday, no breakthrough COVID-19 deaths were recorded in the 10-19 and 0-9 age groups, according to Breakthrough Case Report published Thursday by the Oregon Health Authority.

The report, which states COVID-19 data from Dec. 19 and Dec. 25, also showed that health officials recorded 2,567 new breakthrough infections within the week. COVID-19 cases among the fully vaccinated represented 36.7% of all infections reported within the time period.

Overall, Oregon recorded a total of 53,604 breakthrough COVID-19 cases. More than 18% of all infections among the vaccinated population occurred in people aged 30-39.

The report comes after the Oregon Health Authority on Wednesday reported 2,331 new COVID-19 cases among the unvaccinated and the vaccinated across the state, nearly double the figures reported that same day last week.

Wednesday’s case numbers were also the first time the state reported more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases since Sept. 29.

Dr. Paul Cieslak, medical director for communicable diseases and immunizations in OHA's Public Health Division, attributed the latest surge in case numbers to the start of the new infections brought about by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

“That’s hardly a wave, but given how rapidly omicron spread in other areas where it kind of ballooned shortly after it was first discovered and given that… our daily average number of cases have been picking up for several days now, I do suspect that we may well be seeing omicron coming on strong now,” Cieslak told KGW8.