EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The number of positive COVID-19 cases in El Paso has seen an uptick and over 200 are reported as breakthrough cases.
The CDC explains vaccine breakthrough cases as being the small percentage of people who are fully vaccinated that will still get COVID-19 if they are exposed to the virus that causes it.
As of Wednesday, city staff said there are 277 breakthrough cases in El Paso since immunization efforts began. No additional breakthrough deaths have been reported, and that mark stands at one.
Current data on epstrong.org shows that there 136,999 cumulative cases in El Paso county and 2,678 deaths due to the virus.
Infectious disease specialist Dr. Ogechika Alozie shared with KTSM 9 News it’s important to remember the vaccine protects against the most severe disease and hospitalization, however breakthrough cases are still bound to happen.
“I think sometimes we get into this word game right of whether the vaccine lead to illness or vice versa, you can have COVID in your nose, right, and because you’re vaccinated, you don’t get sick,” Dr. Alozie explained. “In fact, 98 to 99% of the persons who multiple reports have been shown that they have been fully vaccinated, have a positive test, never have any symptoms and are unable to spread your typing that’s very important as well.
Nearly 1 million doses of various COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the region, according to city data.
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