Vaccinations take place every day in Illinois in order to save lives and stop the pandemic, but there is a chance that fully vaccinated people can still receive a positive COVID-19 test.
The Illinois Department of Public Health told NBC 5 that it is following the cases of people who have been vaccinated and tested positive for COVID-19. According to IDPH, of the more than 1.6 million people who are fully vaccinated, 217 reported a positive test more than two weeks after their last dose of vaccine.
Ariel Silver of Northbrook, a sales manager for a medical device company, said she received her second dose of Pfizer vaccine in mid-January and tested positive for COVID-19 in early March.
“After I was completely vaccinated for six weeks and then to get a positive COVID test, I was shocked,” Silver said.
Silver said his two young daughters gave positive results in late February and soon began to feel unwell.
“I was hit hard,” she said. “I read that if someone gets vaccinated they get COVID, it’s usually very mild symptoms. But for two days my symptoms weren’t mild at all. I was in bed, very sick.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the vaccine will help you get seriously ill, even if you receive COVID.
“We shouldn’t be surprised that some people still get infected, especially if they have high-risk exposures, such as household exposure, but what we shouldn’t expect are severe infections, because we know that vaccines they were extremely protective against any hospitalizations, ”said Dr. Jonathan Pinsky, medical director and specialist in infectious disease control and prevention at Edward Hospital.
Silver said she and her daughters have returned to normal.
She said she fully supports people who get vaccinated and wants to spread awareness that what happened to her can happen to other people.
“I could only imagine that I didn’t have the vaccine and that I received COVID and how much worse it would be,” Silver said. “I feel that he protected me from hospitalization and God forbid, death.”