Health Team

With data updated only every 2 weeks, it's hard to track breakthrough COVID cases in NC

With the daily number of new coronavirus cases on the rise, many wonder whether that trend includes what are called breakthrough cases, or cases in those who've had a COVID-19 vaccine.

Posted Updated

By
Amanda Lamb
, WRAL reporter

With the daily number of new coronavirus cases on the rise, many wonder whether that trend includes what are called breakthrough cases, or cases in those who've had a COVID-19 vaccine.

In short, it is hard to say. The state Department of Health and Human Services release data specific to breakthrough cases only every two weeks.

The last release, on July 22, showed there had been about 7,300 breakthrough COVID cases statewide since May. That's about 8 percent of the total number of cases. Of those, 388 people required hospitalization and 66 died. New numbers aren't expected to be released until late next week.

DHHS explained that collecting the data and making determinations on which cases should be considered breakthrough is not a fast process, unlike the case numbers, deaths and hospitalizations that can be updated daily.

DHHS spokesperson Bailey Pennington wrote, “The data on number of breakthrough cases, hospitalizations and deaths are updated approximately every two weeks. Every two weeks, the NC Division of Public Health runs a query to match data from the North Carolina COVID Vaccine Management System (CVMS) and the Federal Pharmacy Program with the database of COVID-19 cases reported in NC. This matching is done based on information such as name, date of birth, and address in each system. This data is then analyzed to determine which cases meet the definition of a post-vaccination case, and this process can take time.”

Gov. Roy Cooper said, "The numbers of breakthrough cases are not as important as the fact that you don’t get really sick most of the time, and you certainly don’t die most of the time. Unvaccinated people do."

But both a recent COVID patient and Dr. David Montefiori said greater transparency would be better.

Williams was diagnosed with the virus earlier this month after getting two doses of the Moderna vaccine. She believes people need all the data they can get to understand that you still need to protect yourself even when you’re vaccinated.

"I think with not being honest or not being transparent in a way, you're failing to prepare, and, so, you are preparing to fail," she said. "We need to get ahead of this."

Montefiori said more can be done to collect and disseminate information on new COVID-19 cases.

"Asking people who come into the clinic, getting tested, 'Were you previously vaccinated?' That information should be captured," he said.

Cooper pointed out that as more people get vaccinated, the raw number of breakthrough cases will also go up.

"We're having some breakthrough cases, there's no doubt about that," Cooper said. "The overwhelming evidence is that you don't get any ways as sick, and you generally don't have to go to the hospital and die if you have been vaccinated."

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