At least three fully immunized Hawaii residents have contracted COVID-19, though the coronavirus vaccines appear to have prevented serious illness.
None of the three individuals who received two doses of the vaccine and later tested positive became severely ill or transmitted the virus to others, the Department of Health said in an email.
“This number is not outside what we would expect with nearly 165,000 people in Hawaii who are fully vaccinated,” said DOH spokesman Brooks Baehr. “A vaccine with 95% efficacy will protect 95 out of 100 people. This is another reason we must all do our part to keep case counts low. The lower the prevalence of COVID in the community, the lower the chance any of us — even those who have been vaccinated — will be infected.”
One of the cases was an Oahu health care worker who contracted the virus after a recent trip to the mainland. The worker had completed the two-dose regimen for the COVID-19 vaccine in early January, and traveled to multiple mainland cities about a month later.
