Public Health officials are still compiling the data on the percentage of breakthrough COVID cases among those who are fully vaccinated.

“Delta is a different beast” says Acting Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Rosann Seviour.

Vaccination rates need to be high, but “once we kick it up to Delta, we require even higher vaccination rates to form that barrier or shield….because Delta is more transmissible” she told reporters yesterday.

There are two outbreaks in the central Newfoundland region of the highly contagious Delta variant – one on the Baie Verte Peninsula, and the other in the Twillingate and New World Island area.

Dr. Seviour says while there have been some breakthrough cases, the full picture is not yet clear.

Twenty-one of the cases in the Baie Verte region have been in those who are fully vaccinated, while 40 of the 70 confirmed cases related to the cluster were completely unvaccinated and 9 people were only partially vaccinated. It’s too early to determine the exact numbers in the Twillingate area because a large number of cases associated with that outbreak are still presumptive.