“Breakthrough” Covid Admissions Pass the Quarter Mark at LGH; 25% also in ICU

By: Caroline Machiraju

LANCASTER, Pa. – “Breakthrough” cases now make up more than a quarter of hospitalizations at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital, per their Covid dashboard, which was recently updated to reflect “breakthrough” data. Their Covid “breakthrough” patients also make up a quarter of the ICU admissions.

A “breakthrough” cases is defined by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as individuals who are fully vaccinated and tested positive for COVID-19 more than 14 days after they completed their full one or two-dose vaccination series.

Harrisburg100 is keeping pressure on area health systems to disclose this information. This information could play a role in the public’s decision to receive the vaccine “booster,” approved this past Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Here’s a peek at other area health provider’s dashboards: 

Penn State Health: Dashboard

UPMC: None. No Covid dashboard on website at this time. (This is unusual, given that UPMC has been vocal in the news media, to push the vaccine, even recommending it for children, whose hospitalization rate for Covid is still less than 1%, per the American Academy of Pediatrics and the death rate for children is less than .01%.)

WellSpan Health: Dashboard (Covid admissions, but no breakthrough data, as of Sept. 24)

Harrisburg100 reached out to Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital, as well as the other area health systems listed in this report, and will update this article when we receive a response.