Virus Cases 4X Higher Among Unvaccinated In Santa Clara County

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — COVID-19 cases among unvaccinated residents of Santa Clara County are nearly four times higher than cases among those fully vaccinated, new data from the County of Santa Clara shows.

As of Wednesday, the seven-day average is 12.1 cases per 100,000 county residents, according to the County of Santa Clara's dashboard. But that number doesn't paint the whole picture: Vaccinated people are contracting the virus at a rate of 6.8 cases per 100,000 people, while the unvaccinated are seeing 25.3 cases per 100,000 people.

The case rate per 100,000 residents for the unvaccinated has jumped from about 3 to more than 25 over the past month, the County said in a news release. Though the case rate among the vaccinated has increased in recent weeks, it is not experiencing as steep of a spike.

"Vaccines are still excellent at protecting against serious illness and death. They also provide significant protection against infection, though perhaps not quite as effective against the Delta variant," Dr. George Han, County of Santa Clara Deputy Health Officer, said in a statement. "To protect those who are not yet eligible for vaccination, such as children, and people who are elderly or immunocompromised, we need everyone who can get a vaccine to do so now."

Masking up indoors will also help minimize the spike in community transmission, Han said.

To create the dashboard, the county considered residents "vaccinated" beginning two weeks after their final vaccine dose, the news release said. People are categorized as "unvaccinated" if they have not received any doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and those who are "partially vaccinated" – meaning they have only received one dose of a two-dose vaccine or have not yet reached 14 days after their final dose – are not included in either category.

Officials are measuring the spread of COVID-19 using case rates rather than number of cases because case rates allow for a better comparison of the burden of COVID-19 between different-sized populations, the dashboard said.

Currently, 84 percent of Santa Clara County residents age 12 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and roughly 78 percent are fully vaccinated, according to the news release.

"Santa Clara County has among the highest vaccination rates in the nation, but it remains critical that more individuals get vaccinated to further protect the community, particularly children, the elderly, and people who are immunocompromised," the news release said.