Seven COVID vaccine breakthrough cases active in Wichita County

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (TNN) - COVID-19 breakthrough cases are when someone who’s fully vaccinated tests positive for the virus. So far, only a handful of these instances have happened in Wichita County.

“We’ve been watching that since the very beginning, since vaccinations started and so we started noticing it was just maybe one per week, two per week, now we are currently at seven,” Amy Fagan, assistant health director of the Wichita Falls Wichita County Public Health District, said.

Health leaders say this happening was fully expected and to not panic.

“This is something we take seriously and follow closely. You will see breakthrough infections in any vaccination when you’re vaccinating literally tens and tens and tens of millions of people. So in some respects, that’s not surprising,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor of the President, said.

So why we are seeing this happen? It’s because vaccines don’t protect you 100% but they do help prevent the disease from being severe. Both Pfizer and Moderna are 95% effective, Johnson & Johnson is 85%.

“So even if you do end up contracting COVID after you’ve been vaccinated, it’s just like if you’ve been vaccinated for the flu, typically you have a milder case and you recover faster,” Fagan said.

Of the seven Wichita County cases, six have the Pfizer vaccine, one has Moderna, and none have severe symptoms. Amy Fagan adds that yes, we will see more of these cases but Fagan expects it to only be a small percentage of overall cases.

“I can tell you based on what we are seeing and the way in which we’re seeing it, so not seven all at once but one a week, I expect that trend to continue,” Fagan said.

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