Pa. reports breakthrough COVID cases and hospitalizations continue to rise

Nov. 18—The rate of breakthrough COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continued to tick up in the monthly update from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, but officials stressed that even so, vaccinations still offer the best protection in the pandemic.

The monthly report comes amid the disease taking new ground in Berks County and across Pennsylvania with record delta-variant surge case days reported Thursday.

Since the October update of breakthrough cases, 30% of the 117,495 new COVID cases statewide were among the fully vaccinated with the rest a mix of lesser statuses. Fully vaccinated includes only those two weeks beyond the final dose.

The rate is up from 26% in the October update.

The other statuses are less than two weeks after the final dose, one dose of a two-dose vaccine, no vaccination and unknown vaccination status.

Hospitalizations, which have taken a hard turn up this week statewide are similar, with 26% of the 8,387 COVID admissions among the fully vaccinated with the rest a mix of lesser statuses.

The rate is up from 24% in the October update.

Unknown vaccination status plays a role in hospitalizations. For the four-hospital Penn State Health system, which includes St. Joseph hospital in Bern Township, typically the vaccination status is not known for 10% to 20% of the patients.

Officials believe much of the upswing in breakthrough cases is just statistical fallout of more people being vaccinated.

The health department's statement: "The case incidence among the fully vaccinated population is expected to increase as vaccinated persons have more opportunities to be exposed to infectious persons, especially persons infected by more transmissible variants. Case counts, population percentages and incidence calculations include all ages in Pa., both adults and children."

The statistics are only available at the state level and do not come with local specifics unless there is a county or municipal health department to provide the data.

In COVID deaths, 11% have been among the fully vaccinated and those of a lesser status have a 4.76 times higher incidence.

The health department also had this statement:

"Tracking events of COVID-19 that occur after vaccination is important for monitoring public health. While COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, some cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are still expected in persons who have been vaccinated, as no vaccine is 100 percent effective. If the incidence or severity of post-vaccination cases increases, this could be a signal of reduced protection against a variant."

Statistics involving breakthrough cases, hospitalizations and deaths were introduced Sept. 7 by the health department.

The statistical period begins with Jan. 1, which was a couple weeks after the vaccination process got rolling.

On Sept. 7, health officials unveiled figures showing only 6% of cases, 5% of hospitalizations and 3% of deaths were breakthrough cases since Jan. 1.

The latest update, showed those numbers were up to 12%, 10% and 11%, respectively.

The majority of residents in Berks and Pennsylvania are fully vaccinated, 68.7% of adults in Berks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than 70% of adults statewide.

Daily cases

Berks added 246 COVID cases in the Thursday update of the health department's pandemic dashboard, blowing away the previous high mark of 208 from Saturday.

The pandemic total increased to 62,287. The wild card is whether there are any reinfections among the new cases.

The state has said it won't keep track of them separately. A reinfection is added to the count when there is a subsequent positive test more than 90 days after the initial positive.

The initial data dump of reinfections showed they were about 1% of the pandemic total.

For Berks, the seven- and 14-day case averages surged to delta highs at 168 and 159, respectively. The averages smooth the uneven test processing.

Across Pennsylvania, another 6,637 cases were reported, swamping the prior record of 6,024 set in the Wednesday update.

The pandemic total was near 1.67 million. Statewide as well, the wild card is whether there were reinfections in the latest daily report.

Health department spokeswoman Maggi Barton said this about the increases this week: "The delta variant remains highly transmissible and dangerous to the unvaccinated. As delta continues to represent more than 99 percent of cases sequenced for variants, we know this variant has been and continues to be playing a role in the increases in cases across our communities.

"While COVID-19 cases are increasing across the commonwealth, it is vitally important that individuals understand that the vaccine continues to be highly effective against the COVID-19 virus especially serious illness, hospitalization and death."

The current situation resembles a year ago as the dreadful winter surge began ahead of holiday gatherings.

On Nov. 19, 2020, the seven-day case average in Berks had climbed to 169 while the 14-day was at 144, showing a rapid ramp up in the previous week.

Within a few weeks those averages would reach pandemic peaks of 343 and 336, respectively, by mid-December.

Hospitalizations

In COVID hospitalizations, the dashboard update Thursday showed Berks hospitals had 71 patients, an increase of seven from Wednesday, with 19 in intensive care, an increase of two.

The 71 remained well off the delta high of 87, but the ICU count equaled the delta high.

Across Pennsylvania, the COVID hospitalizations count went up by 16 for a total of 3,032, which was still fewer than the delta high mark of 3,103.

The 16 followed days of hospitalizations increasing by 168 and 154.

On Thursday, the statewide ICU total increased by 22 to 679, nearing a delta high.

The Tower Health dashboard was not updated by midafternoon Thursday. Penn State Health updates its dashboard on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Deaths

No Berks residents were among the 96 COVID deaths reported statewide in the Thursday dashboard update.

The Berks total remained at 1,183, and the state's total increased to 32,729.

The county coroner's office report of deaths within Berks remained at 1,120. The office is expected to issue a report on Friday.

Vaccinations data

In COVID vaccinations, Berks added 206 residents to the completed column for a total of 216,925, according to the state.

The partial-vaccinations count increased 269 to 24,888, and the boosters/third shots number increased by more than 1,000 again to reach 32,439. Many of the partials are children age 5 to 11.

Statewide, the fully vaccinated total increased by about 6,000 to nearly 6.56 million residents.

The count of partials increased by about 16,000 and remained slightly under 1 million, and about 36,000 were added to the count of boosters/third shots, which passed the 1.24 million mark.

The CDC record keeping shows 239,813 Berks residents age 12 and older are fully vaccinated, which is 66.5% of the eligible population.

The same information brings the total of children age 5 to 11 with a first Pfizer shot up to about 2,300.

The CDC's accounting of vaccinations is the full picture on inoculations and includes the state's numbers and other shots given under federal auspices.

COVID in Berks

246: new cases

62,287: pandemic total

159: 14-day average

1,183: deaths, state

1,120: deaths, coroner

239,628: fully vaccinated Berks residents