Covid-19 may be a serious illness for tens of thousands of people who have been vaccinated. However, the vast majority of them will not become severely ill. This is a testimony to the effectiveness of inoculations against any variant of the Delta virus that has been causing case surges in the US, according to a top health official.

According to Dr. Rochelle Walsky, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the severity of the disease, not the number of people who contract it, is an important concept for people to grasp at this stage in the pandemic.

“I believe we all need to realize that there are 164 million people who have been vaccinated. We should be expecting tens or thousands of new infections.”

“Those with breakthrough infections are mildly ill. They’re staying at home. They aren’t dying and that’s what Walensky said.

Breakthrough cases occur when the virus infects fully vaccinated people.

As the Delta variant of the coronavirus rips through the US, it is especially devastating regions with low vaccination rates as experts and government officials nationwide urge people to get their shots before a dire situation gets even worse.

As of Thursday, roughly half (49.9%) of the US population is fully vaccinated, CDC data shows, and 58.4% received at least one dose.

To be fully protected against Covid-19, it is important to get vaccinated. This includes the highly contagious Delta variant which was responsible for 93% of all cases this week in the US.

Professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center Dr. William Schaffner echoed Walensky’s view on how vaccination reduces the intensity and severity of Covid-19 symptoms in breakthrough cases.

“This is most problematic when it comes to severe diseases, which require hospitalization. It’s not among the unvaccinated. It is very rare for a person who has been vaccinated to be admitted to hospital. These people are usually older and more frail than the rest. They were never able to respond to vaccines, and there are some immunocompromised people whose immune systems also weren’t optimally able to react to vaccines,” Schaffner said to Daily Reuters on Thursday.

“So, the unvaccinated remain the main highway of transmission. They’re just side streets for the vaccinated. We shouldn’t get too preoccupied about that. We must get more people vaccinated.”

Walensky stated Thursday that case surges can be managed in as little as a few weeks if there are more people who get their shots.

She said, “But, our models show us that if we don’t (vaccinate people), then we could be up several hundred thousand cases per day, similar to our surge at the beginning of January.”

Good news: Vaccinations have increased.

Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, data director at the White House, tweeted Thursday that there was the largest daily number of doses administered in more than a month.

More than 864,000 doses had been reported administered over the previous day’s total, including about 585,000 people who got their first shot, he said. According to Thursday’s data, an average of 677,000 doses were administered every day for the past seven days.

But even as vaccinations rise, some children who have gone back to school have tested positive for Covid-19.

According to district’s Covid-19 dashboard, Arizona’s second-largest school district has 103 active cases. There have been more than 140 cases since the start of school in Chandler Unified School district on July 21st.

Terry Locke, spokesperson for Chandler Unified School District, stated that the district will continue to monitor confirmed cases to adjust our mitigation plan as needed.

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Students who have symptoms must be quarantined in Chandler. This is not required for students who are vaccinated.

In Indianapolis Public Schools officials notified parents Tuesday of 61 fourth-grade students who were positive for Covid-19.

Garrett said that the students will continue to learn remotely during quarantine and that students must wear masks, regardless of their vaccination status.

Walensky urges districts to mask students in schools, as under-12-year-olds are still ineligible for vaccines.