One fully vaccinated person has died with COVID-19 in Hamilton

One person has died with COVID in Hamilton despite getting both vaccine doses, public health has confirmed.

That's out of a total 399 COVID deaths in the pandemic as of Thursday 3 p.m.

It's not clear if the individual died from COVID or other underlying health conditions or if the infection occurred within two weeks of the vaccination, when a person still hasn't reached maximum protection.

In an emailed statement, Hamilton public health declined to provide details about the case to protect the privacy and personal health information of community members."

While public health said approved COVID-19 vaccines don't offer 100 per cent protection, they are extremely effective" at reducing severe illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19.

Vaccines work by teaching our immune systems to fight off the virus so that we don't become severely or critically ill when we come into contact with it," said spokesperson James Berry. They cannot prevent us from coming into contact with the virus altogether.

That's why it's so critical that all Hamiltonians continue to follow public health guidance and advice to protect community members from the transmission of COVID-19 and variants of concern."

Two other COVID deaths have been reported in Hamilton of people who got only one dose of the vaccine, public health said Friday.

Earlier this month, health officials in the Region of Waterloo reported the death of a fully immunized woman in her 90s. She died in a long-term-care home in a suspected Delta variant outbreak. A similar outbreak at Toronto Western Hospital is also reported to have affected both vaccinated and unvaccinated patients.

Public Health Ontario reports that there were 32 deaths in fully vaccinated individuals from Dec. 14 to June 12 provincewide. The deaths were in people in their 50s or older, with 25 of them occurring in those 80-plus.

But it's important to be realistic about our expectations for vaccines, said the director of the division of infectious diseases at McMaster University.

They turn a potentially fatal infection into a relatively mild cold," said Dr. Dominik Mertz. That's where the vaccines do their absolute best job."

And we don't have enough information to tell us to what extent COVID contributed to the deaths. For example, someone who tested positive could have had a mild infection or been asymptomatic and died of something else, said the associate professor. We don't expect to be at zero deaths from COVID but we can reduce the risk very, very significantly," he said.

From Dec. 14 to June 12, Hamilton had 627 cases in people who had one dose and 56 in people with two doses, according to Public Health Ontario. That's out of a total 16,689 cases in Hamilton over that period, roughly 4.1 per cent.

The 627 cases are a tiny fraction - about 0.18 per cent - of Hamilton residents who received at least one dose, per the data.

It's a very small proportion of those who have been vaccinated who eventually test positive," Mertz said.

He added that residents should get the first vaccine they're offered, saying it doesn't matter whether it's Pfizer or Moderna.

Doing so will not only helps protect the individual from severe disease, but can also help others.

It seems to reduce the risk of transmission as well, once you're infected if you're vaccinated."

Maria Iqbal is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator covering aging. Reach her via email: miqbal@thespec.com