DENVER — The COVID-19 vaccine has proven to be an effective measure at preventing infection, severe illness, hospitalization and death in Colorado, according to new data released Wednesday by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and now widely available to the public.
The CDPHE launched a COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough dashboard Wednesday that, for the first time, gives the public a glimpse of how hard the vaccines are working.
The online dashboard provides a snapshot of breakthrough cases of COVID-19 reported in Colorado and compares that data to unvaccinated cases in the state.
The dashboard also provides demographic breakdowns and will be updated weekly for breakthrough cases and vaccinated hospitalizations. Vaccinated death data will updated monthly.
Just how effective are the vaccines?
For the week of Aug. 22, there were 96.1 vaccinated cases per 100,000 people, with a median age of 45. That is compared to 327 unvaccinated cases per 100,000 people, with a median age of 32.
And when it comes to hospitalizations and death, the vaccines are even more effective at preventing those outcomes, according to the data.
For the week of Aug. 15, there were 3.5 vaccinated hospitalizations per 100,000 people, with a median age of 73. In the month of July, the state recorded 8.1 vaccinated deaths per 1 million, with a median age of 79.
But those who are unvaccinated fared worse. For the same week in Aug., there were 13.2 unvaccinated hospitalizations per 100,000 people, with a median age of 58. And for the month of July, 46.9 unvaccinated deaths per 1 million people, with a median age of 76, were recorded.
State Epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said Wednesday hospitalizations continue to increase in the state.
As of Wednesday, there are 891 people hospitalized in Colorado for COVID-19, the highest since January. She said the majority of those hospitalized are unvaccinated.
“Most of the transmission, most of the hospitalization is really occurring among our unvaccinated population,” Dr. Herlihy said.
She said the CDPHE is seeing a decline in the effectiveness of the vaccine as the delta variant emerges as the dominant strain, but the decline is not substantial.
