KEY POINTS

  • The majority of vaccinated people who died of COVID-19 in Oregon were aged 80 and older
  • No fully vaccinated individuals aged 12 to 29 died of COVID-19 in the state
  • Oregon has recorded more than 359,700 total COVID-19 cases

More than 300 individuals in Oregon who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 have died of the virus since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the state’s health department.

Health officials say that COVID-19 deaths among fully vaccinated residents in Oregon are still rising even as infection rates continue to drop across the United States. As of Oct. 21, 325 fully vaccinated people in the state died of COVID-19 and the deaths represent 1% of Oregon’s fully vaccinated population, according to the state Health Authority’s weekly breakthrough report.

At least 48% of the vaccinated people who died of COVID-19 had received the two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, 24% received the two-dose Moderna vaccines and 13% got the single-dose Janssen shot by Johnson & Johnson, the report said.

Of the 325 total breakthrough COVID-19 deaths, 51.3% occurred in individuals aged 80 and older, 26.4% were in people aged 70 to 79, 16.3% were in people aged 60 to 69, 3% occurred in people aged 50 to 59, 2.1% were in residents aged 40 to 49 and 0.6% occurred in residents aged 30 to 39.

As of Oct. 21, no fully vaccinated residents in Oregon belonging to the 12 to 19 and 20 to 29 age groups died of COVID-19.

In the week beginning Oct. 10 and ending Oct. 16, Oregon health officials recorded 1,977 new breakthrough COVID-19 infections, putting the state’s overall number of coronavirus cases among the fully vaccinated to 32,954. At least 848 cases were recorded in people aged 12 to 17.

Statewide, the health department recorded a total of 359,733 COVID-19 cases and 4,295 deaths among the unvaccinated and vaccinated as of Monday. However, the agency said the totals may still increase after they experienced server issues on Friday and Saturday, according to KATU 2.

Across the U.S., the daily case average has dropped by nearly 43% over the past month. Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana, have reported their average number of cases dropping by nearly 90% since August.

Despite the drop in COVID-19 case rates in most U.S. states, several areas in the Northeast and the Upper Midwest are still experiencing surging numbers of infections, including Minnesota and Michigan, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The United States has so far reported 45,544,939 coronavirus cases and 737,316 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, data from Johns Hopkins University stated.

This file photo taken on March 04, 2021 shows vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 amid the coronavirus pandemic in Panama City
This file photo taken on March 04, 2021 shows vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 amid the coronavirus pandemic in Panama City AFP / Luis ACOSTA