As Ontario tries to keep a resurgence of COVID-19 cases under control, new data from Public Health Ontario shows only nine fully vaccinated people under 60 have ended up in the ICU.

But they also support opening up third doses of the COVID vaccine to more older adults, and highlight why masking and other public health measures are still critical at this stage of the pandemic to protect the most vulnerable.

The Public Health Ontario report, which includes COVID vaccination and case data up until Nov.

14, shows there were only 17,596 breakthrough cases out of the 11.1 million individuals who have completed two doses of the vaccine.

Sarah Wilson, a public health physician at Public Health Ontario, said in an email to the Star.

14, unvaccinated individuals made up 91 per cent of COVID cases in Ontario, with breakthrough infections accounting for 3.8 per cent of cases.

Public Health Ontario defines a breakthrough case as “individuals who have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and were infected more than two weeks after receiving their second dose,” Wilson said.

The report notes a similar trend was observed for COVID hospitalizations and deaths “with unvaccinated cases accounting for 90.9 per cent of hospitalizations and 90.2 per cent of deaths while breakthrough cases accounted for 2.7 per cent of hospitalizations and 3.3 per cent of deaths.” As of Nov.

While the data shows older adults are more at risk of hospitalization from a breakthrough infection — particularly those over the age of 80 — the rate of “hospitalizations was higher among unvaccinated individuals compared to fully vaccinated individuals.”.

Wilson said the data makes it clear the risk of COVID infection is higher for those who are unvaccinated.

While the Ontario data shows COVID vaccines work very well, they still do not offer complete protection, said Dr

Wilson said Public Health Ontario will be publishing further reports on breakthrough infections “that could be used to inform third dose rollout” and that researchers are looking at data on different age groups and the timing of infection after a second dose