Nearly all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are in now occurring in people who aren't vaccinated, a staggering demonstration of how effective the shots have been.
An Associated Press analysis of available government data from May shows that 'breakthrough' infections in fully vaccinated people accounted for fewer than 1,200 of more than 853,00 hospitalizations.
What's more, only about 150 of the more than 18,000 COVID-19 deaths in May were in fully vaccinated people, which translates to about 0.8 percent, or five deaths per day on average.
The data shows the value of the COVID-19 vaccine and are an indication that deaths per day - now averaging 300 per day - could be practically zero if everyone eligible was immunized.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said that almost all deaths from COVID-19 at this point are preventable due to the availability of the vaccines
The AP analyzed figures provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which itself had not estimated what percentage of hospitalizations and deaths are in fully vaccinated people.
The analysis found that only 45 states report breakthrough infections, so there may be some undercounting in the case total among vaccinated people.
Currently, it is believed that breakthrough infections account for under 0.1 percent of new COVID cases.
Breakthrough cases are often less severe, though, as antibodies supplied by the vaccine help combat the worst effects of the virus.
'Nearly every death, especially among adults, due to COVID-19, is, at this point, entirely preventable,' said CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Andy Slavitt, a former adviser to the Biden administration on COVID-19, suggested that 98 percent to 99 percent of the Americans dying of the coronavirus are unvaccinated.
Cases and deaths in the United States have plummeted in recent months, as more and more Americans get vaccinated.
The nation is recording about 80,000 new cases a week at the moment, a large drop from the peak of the pandemic in January, where more than 1.75 million cases were recorded in a week.
The U.S. also has not recorded more than 1,000 deaths in a single day in more than three months.
Credit for the lowering cases goes to the COVID-19 vaccines.
More than 65 percent of American adults have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, with around half being fully vaccinated.
While vaccines remain scarce in much of the world, the U.S. supply is so abundant and demand has slumped so dramatically that shots sit unused.
Ross Bagne, a 68-year-old small-business owner in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was eligible for the vaccine in early February but didn't get it.
He died June 4, infected and unvaccinated, after spending more
