The state health department study covers most of the positive cases and COVID-19 deaths reported in Texas among residents from Jan. 15 to Oct. 1.
The majority of Texans ages 16 and up didn’t become eligible for the vaccine until late March.
State health officials also found the vaccine greatly reduced the risk of virus transmission, including the highly contagious delta variant that ravaged the state over the summer.
Only 3% of 1.5 million positive COVID-19 tests examined since mid-January occurred in people who were already vaccinated.
State researchers matched electronic lab reports and death certificates with state immunization records, and measured cases and deaths since mid-January, a month after the first shots were administered in Texas. »