COVID Prison Outbreak Infects About 70% Of Those Vaccinated, CDC Says

A COVID-19 outbreak at a federal prison in Texas infected 70% of those vaccinated, according to a report published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Of the 233 people incarcerated in the prison, 39 of the 42 unvaccinated tested positive compared to the 129 infected of the 185 fully vaccinated, the CDC report found. This equates to 93% and 70% of infections among both groups respectively.

“Although attack rates, hospitalizations, and deaths were higher among unvaccinated than among vaccinated persons, duration of positive serial test results was similar for both groups,” the CDC said in the report.

According to the CDC, three of the four people hospitalized with COVID were unvaccinated and one unvaccinated person in the prison died from the virus.

Earlier in September, the CDC released a study showing that people who are not fully vaccinated are over 10 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 and 11 times more likely to die from the virus.

The continued spike in cases and the high risk of infections among those not inoculated has prompted health officials to recommend indoor mask wearing regardless of people’s vaccination status.

Efforts to get more Americans vaccinated continue as President Joe Biden urges employers to require vaccination of all its workers.

Sixty-four percent of the U.S. population has at least one dose of the vaccine while 55% are fully vaccinated.