7 Fully Vaccinated People Die Of COVID-19 In Florida Within 2 Weeks

At least seven people in Florida died of COVID-19 over the past two weeks despite being fully vaccinated against the virus. These vaccinated people died after developing coronavirus-related complications, including pneumonia and stroke.

“They were all fully vaccinated, which was disturbing... For one, I got to the hospital, the initial report, he was doing well. 2 liters of oxygen, sitting up, good saturation rate, crashed in 72 hours and died,” Patricia Seemann, a Florida medical practitioner who provides health care services to homebound patients, told WESH 2.

Despite the recent deaths, Seemann said she still urges residents to get vaccinated, noting that the shots could give COVID-19 patients the “best possible odds.”

Florida health officials reported 21,669 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, bringing the state's seven-day average to 24,720, according to data from The New York Times. It is unclear how many of the new infections were breakthrough cases.

Breakthrough infections in vaccinated people have also hit other states. In Texas, Austin Public Health officials on Tuesday said they have recorded more than 2,600 breakthrough infections among the 1.2 million residents who have been fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.

Of the known breakthrough cases, at least 88.2% of 812 patients whose symptom status was known were symptomatic. At least 41 patients were hospitalized, with the median age being 77. Officials have reported 12 breakthrough deaths, according to KVUE.

Breakthrough infections now account for at least 20% of newly diagnosed cases in six of seven U.S. states, including California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia. The percentage also increased significantly in breakthrough hospitalizations and deaths.

“Remember when the early vaccine studies came out, it was like nobody gets hospitalized, nobody dies. That clearly is not true,” Dr. Robert Wachter, chairman of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told The Times.

Data from late July showed that 44% of all breakthrough hospitalizations involved individuals with weakened immune systems, such as patients with cancer, recipients of organ transplants, and those with advanced or untreated HIV, according to CNBC.

The figures support calls for a booster shot for Americans, which has been granted emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The third dose will be administrated to immunocompromised patients as young as 12.

It is unclear when the third dose would be authorized for distribution for the general population. However, the Biden administration is seeking to offer booster shots as early as this fall.