Only 256 Covid deaths out of over 50,000 among fully vaccinated people

New analysis shows far fewer Covid-19 deaths among fully vaccinated people

There have been only 256 deaths with coronavirus among people in England who were fully vaccinated in the first six months of the year, out of a total of 51,281 Covid deaths, new data has revealed.

The Office for National Statistics has analysed data to establish the true number of deaths from what it calls ‘breakthrough’ infections where the virus manages to evade the effects of the vaccines.

There were 38,964 deaths involving Covid-19 among people who were unvaccinated during the same six month period.

In total the ONS said there were 640 deaths among people who had been fully vaccinated but this included people who had been infected before they had been vaccinated and before it was able to protect them.

In total, only 256 deaths were recorded involving Covid-19 14 days after a second dose of vaccine. A total of 193 of these were among those classed as clinically extremely vulnerable to Covid-19.

Julie Stanborough, deputy director of health and life events at the ONS said: “Our new analysis shows that, sadly, there have been deaths of people involving Covid-19 despite them being fully vaccinated.

“However, we’ve also found that the risk of a death involving Covid-19 is much lower among people who are fully vaccinated than those who are unvaccinated or have only received one dose. This shows the effectiveness of the vaccines in giving a high degree of protection against severe illness and death.”

The ONS said the risk of deaths involving Covid-19 was consistently lower for people who had received two vaccinations compared to one or no vaccinations.

It added that 61 per cent of ‘breakthrough deaths’ occurred in males, compared to 52 per cent of other Covid-19 deaths.

The average age of breakthrough deaths was 84, compared to 82 for other Covid-19 deaths.

It also added that 13 per cent of the ‘breakthrough deaths’ occurred in people were who identified as having a weaker immune system due to hospital treatments.

The ONS report said: “Considering only deaths involving Covid-19 with a known infection date (10,556 deaths), of those who were vaccinated 9.7 per cent had a first positive date preceding the first vaccination (1,024 deaths). Of those who had received only one vaccination dose, 64 per cent had a first positive date within 21 days of vaccination (6,430 deaths). Of those who had received both vaccinations, 48 per cent had a first positive date at least 14 days after the second vaccination (256 deaths).”