A new report released by Public Health Ontario reveals that since COVID-19 vaccines became available, only six people under 60 in the province with breakthrough infections have died after contracting the virus.
The report looked at lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in those who were unvaccinated, partially vaccinated and fully vaccinated (which is considered 14 days after receiving the second vaccine dose) from when vaccines became available in Canada on Dec. 14, 2020 to Nov. 14, 2021.
Over the 11-month period, no deaths were reported in fully vaccinated individuals who had a breakthrough COVID-19 infection between the ages of 12 and 39.
Two fully vaccinated people between the ages of 40 and 49 died from a breakthrough COVID infection and four fully vaccinated people between the ages of 50 and 59 died from the virus.
When it came to those who were unvaccinated, there was one person in the 12 to 17 age group, 26 people aged 18 to 29, 63 people aged 30 to 39, 131 people aged 40 to 49 and 359 people aged 50 to 59, who all died after being infected with COVID.
For people partially vaccinated, the numbers were more favourable than those unvaccinated, but still higher than those double-dosed.
There were no deaths reported among partially vaccinated people between the ages of 12 and 39. But there were five deaths in the 40 to 49 age group, and nine deaths in the 50 to 59 age group.
For those 60 to 69, there were 18 deaths among fully vaccinated, 42 deaths among partially vaccinated, and 713 deaths among those not vaccinated.
For those 70 to 59, there were 35 deaths among fully vaccinated, 63 deaths among partially vaccinated, and 1,146 deaths among those not vaccinated.
For those aged 80 and older, there were 119 deaths among fully vaccinated, 228 among partially vaccinated, and 2,396 deaths among those not vaccinated.
In total, officials in the report noted deaths among the unvaccinated accounted for 90.2 per cent, with fully vaccinated people accounting for 3.3 per cent of deaths from December to November.
The data comes as experts and officials have long said that a COVID-19 vaccine protects people from death and severe symptoms.
There was no data available for children under the age of 12 as the vaccine had not yet been approved by Health Canada until a few days after Nov. 14.
As of Thursday, Ontario reported 9,985 COVID-19-related deaths have been recorded since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.
Also as of Thursday, there are more than 11 million Ontario residents who are fully vaccinated, or 86 per cent of those aged 12 and older.
Vaccination status for people in ICUs
The report also broke down vaccination status for those who ended up intensive care units.
Between the same time frame — Dec. 14, 2020 to Nov. 14, 2021 — the report indicated that more people who were unvaccinated ended up in ICUs versus people who were fully vaccinated or even partially vaccinated.
There were only nine people under the age of 60 who were fully vaccinated and ended up in an ICU with COVID.
By comparison, 35 people under 60 who were partially vaccinated were in ICU and a staggering 1,722 people under the age of 60 who had no protection from a vaccine were admitted to an ICU.
For the older age groups, there were 25 admissions each for those aged 60 to 69 and 70 to 79 who were fully immunized. Over the age of 80 saw 22 admissions.
In partially vaccinated people, there were 52 ICU admissions for those aged 60 to 69, then 48 admissions for the 70 to 79 age group and 60 admissions for the over 80 population.
Among those unvaccinated, there were 1,067 people in ICUs aged 60 to 69, 873 people aged 70 to 79 and 343 over the age of 80 in ICUs.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 6,138 patients in Ontario ICUs.
The data then compares breakthrough COVID cases which in the 11-month time frame hit 17,596 infections or 3.8 per cent of cases. Unvaccinated individuals still account for the majority of COVID cases in Ontario at 91.7 per cent, officials noted in the report.
“The rate of COVID-19 in unvaccinated individuals is higher compared to fully vaccinated individuals. This trend has remained consistent over time,” the report said.
The report also said in its most recent data over 30 days, unvaccinated individuals were about 4.8 times more likely to become a confirmed case compared to those fully vaccinated. It also said in the same 30 days, the rate of COVID in unvaccinated individuals was higher than fully vaccinated individuals in every age group.
As of Thursday, there have been a total of 614,270 lab-confirmed cases of the virus so far in Ontario.
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