New data released by the CDC has revealed that some 5,800 individuals who have been fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus managed to still contract the deadly virus, a figure amounting to less than 1% of individuals who have been inoculated.
Of those who became ill, 396 individuals needed to be hospitalized, whereas 74 became seriously ill and died after contracting the virus.
In a statement given to The Hill, the health agency explained that the “vaccine breakthrough infections make up a small percentage of people who are fully vaccinated,” adding that it still firmly urged eligible Americans to have the vaccine administered “as soon as one is available to them.”
"To date, no unexpected patterns have been identified in case demographics or vaccine characteristics," officials underscored.
While the CDC did state that the breakthrough cases were detected among a range of persons who had been vaccinated, the agency also found that most of the cases involved women and those who were 60 years old and over.
Additionally, about 30% of the cases were people who were asymptomatic, the health body revealed.
The federal body will be conducting additional examinations of the breakthrough cases in order to determine if the illness traced back to a particular SARS-CoV-2 variant, vaccine type or geographic location, among other potential causes.
Officials have stressed that breakthrough cases are always a possibility, since none of the approved vaccines are 100% effective against the respiratory illness. At present, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reported at 95% efficacy rate against symptomatic cases, as the Moderna jab reported a 94% rate.
As for the vaccine offered by medical company Johnson & Johnson, results revealed the troubled one-dose vaccine is 66% effective in combating cases worldwide, while being 72% effective against moderate to severe cases in the US.
The latest findings came as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was placed on a temporary halt after researchers determined patients developed a rare blood-clotting disorder weeks after receiving the jab.
