Unvaccinated cases dominate St. Clair County COVID-19 spread as authorities brace for new variant
With yet another emerging COVID-19 variant, local health officials said it’s too early to predict its presence will change the ongoing surge of new cases.
But the emphasis remains on vaccines as the virus continues to spread.
Because, officials said, immunizations are working.
According to the St. Clair County Health Department, there were just over 7,200 known coronavirus cases from September to November, and 876 cases, or 12% of them, were breakthrough. The difference per-capita, Dr. Annette Mercatante said early Friday, was helping public health officials understand the prevalence of spread between the two groups.
What was a frequency of 1,189 cases per 100,000 for incidents where vaccinated people tested positive was much lower than the 7,415 per 100,000 for the unvaccinated.
“The rate of unvaccinated individuals becoming infected was over six times higher than the rate of infection among vaccinated individuals,” Mercatante said via email.
By the end of November, news of the omicron variant being identified around the world had begun to dominate discussion about COVID, and as of Friday, positive cases were identified in five states around the U.S.
As of the end of this week, no cases of omicron had been identified in Michigan.
And regardless, Mercatante echoed other health authorities: The delta variant remained the predominant strain in the U.S., and that they encouraged vaccination for those 5 and older, boosters for those over 18, and other general prevention strategies.
“We will monitor the situation closely and hope for the best and prepare for the worst,” she said. “The state has ramped up surveillance so we will find the variant once it is here and circulating, but we probably can't prevent it from coming. Scientists are still working to better understand omicron, how it spreads, whether vaccines protect against it, and how severe it is.”
What does the latest data tell us?
In a live Facebook question-and-answer session Thursday, Mercatante emphasized that the numbers currently reported by the county were known cases with new daily cases still averaging around 150.
She said data reported are those that “get into” the Michigan Disease Surveillance System as submitted positive test results. “So, home tests, et cetera,” she said, “are not included.”
As of Friday, there were 4,731 active COVID-19 cases, according to the county data dashboard. The total had reached 27,047 cases, 910 hospitalizations, 538 deaths and 21,778 recoveries.
That’s 1,181 more cases, 10 hospitalizations and deaths, and 283 recoveries than reported last Monday.
Also, as of Friday, 53% of St. Clair County residents had completed the standard one- or two-dose vaccine series, and more than 19,200 booster or additional doses had been delivered.
The county’s test positivity rate was roughly 23.1% as of Thursday.
Mercatante said the local positive rate was higher than the state’s average and its vaccination rate lower.
Looking at new daily cases, the health officer said the latest post-Thanksgiving curve looked a little unusual, adding, “This one has kind of gradually increased, plateaued at a high level, and now, is increasing again. It looks like we’ve plateaued there, but I don’t’ think so. I think that’s just the variability of that data as it comes in over holiday weekends. That data can get skewed on a day-to-day basis. But I think that overall will be more compelling.”
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.
This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Unvaccinated cases dominate local COVID-19 spread; authorities brace for new variant
