Mass. reports 4,568 more COVID-19 cases among vaccinated people

A healthcare worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer vaccine.Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg

The state on Tuesday reported 4,568 more COVID-19 cases among fully vaccinated people since last week, bringing the total since the beginning of the pandemic to 32,345 cases, or 0.71 percent of all fully vaccinated people.

The Department of Public Health also reported 23 more COVID-19 deaths among fully vaccinated people, bringing the total to 217 deaths among those fully vaccinated.

The breakthrough deaths represent a tiny fraction of all vaccinated people and emphasize the protection the vaccines provide against severe illness and death.

The deaths accounted for 0.005 percent of the 4,579,627 people in Massachusetts who were fully vaccinated, the department said in its weekly update on breakthrough COVID-19 metrics, which included data reported through Saturday.

The department also reported an increase since last week of 178 reported hospitalizations among fully vaccinated people, for a total of 1,001 hospitalizations. The total represents 0.02 percent of all fully vaccinated people.

Massachusetts is a national leader in vaccinations, with extremely high percentages of people vaccinated among the oldest age groups.

State officials and public health experts have repeatedly stressed that vaccination greatly reduces hospitalization, severe illness, and death as a result of COVID-19.

Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story misstated the number of hospitalizations reported by the state among vaccinated people since last week. The correct number is 178.

Christina Prignano and Martin Finucane of the Globe staff contributed to this report.