RICHMOND, Va. — The rate of COVID-19 infections among unvaccinated Virginians has more than doubled since the beginning of November, according to the Virginia Department of Health (VDH.)
But with the Omicron variant now officially in the Commonwealth, it's unclear how exactly the coronavirus mutation will impact Virginians both vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Based off of the most recent data from the VDH, unvaccinated Virginias are 9.7 times more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 than vaccinated Virginians.
The rate per 100,000 people is 55 for vaccinated people and 535 for unvaccinated.
However, this only takes into account cases up until the date of Dec. 11, which is the last available information provided by VDH, and days after the first detected Omicron case in the state.
Those numbers, medical experts say, will likely change once more reporting reflects how prevalent the strain is in Virginia.
“We’re experiencing an uptick in cases, prior to the detection of Omicron," Doctor Julia Murphy said, a State Public Health Veterinarian at the VDH.
For comparison, at the height of the Delta surge this fall, unvaccinated Virginias were 7.3 times more likely to develop COVID.
Partially vaccinated Virginians are also significantly less likely to develop COVID versus people who are completed unvaccinated.
Murphy says breakthrough cases ebb and flow with the trends of total cases, but that they're always significantly lower than the rates for unvaccinated populations.
“We could see a rise in hospitalizations due to the sheer overall number of people being infected with Omicron’s greater transmissibility," Murphy said.
In total, VDH reports more than 72,000 breakthrough infections this year, making up less than 2 percent of the more than 5 and a half million vaccinated Virginians.
The CDC announced Monday that Omicron has already overtaken the United States as the most dominant strain of the virus, even though Virginia's official count remains at two confirmed cases.
Murphy also said that the small possibility of breakthrough cases shouldn't deter unvaccinated people from seeking out a vaccine, and that the available vaccines are still the best chance at reducing infection, hospitalization and death.
“If you’re more likely to become infected, you're more likely to become infectious and impact the people around you," she said.