Vaccines prevent severe COVID-19 symptoms among breakthrough infections

27 August 2021 – The Baguio City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU) reported that majority of vaccinated individuals infected with the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were protected from severe symptoms.

This was based on the monitoring of the CESU on breakthrough infections or those infected with COVID-19 even after receiving the vaccine, either partially or a full dose.

City Epidemiologist Donnabel Panes said breakthrough infections normally happens when the body of a vaccinated person was able to isolate the virus more than two weeks from the last dose of vaccination.

Panes explained that even if an individual received vaccine protection, the infection may still happen based on three factors: the capacity of the individual to produce antibodies, a variant that infected the person, and the type of vaccine used.

“Iba-iba ang capability ng tao to produce anti-bodies kaya naman may mga nagkakaroon parin ng COVID-19 kahit bakunado na. Vaccine is like taming the lion into a kitten.” Panes said.

The good news, she said is that majority of the breakthrough cases are asymptomatic to mild.

“Since majority of our breakthrough infections are asymptomatic to mild, this means the vaccine worked and it avoided the development of severe symptoms and even death,” Panes said.

As of August 26, the CESU recorded 52 breakthrough infections out of the 62,405 partially vaccinated individuals; 69 out of the 91,405 fully vaccinated persons infected with the virus 14 days after their second dose and 220 were infected more than 14 days after their second dose. This is equivalent to a 0.24 percent breakthrough infection rate among vaccinated individuals.

Earlier, City Health Services Officer Rowena Galpo said breakthrough infections are expected since no vaccine has 100 percent efficacy thus vaccinated individuals are protected from severe symptoms of COVID-19 and therefore have a higher and faster rate of recovering compared to unvaccinated persons. – Jessa Samidan