A new research suggests that vaccinated healthcare workers can contract COVID-19 infection with variants of concern and may transmit the virus if not screened early enough.

In the study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, of 1,137 healthcare workers fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 4 (0.35%) had breakthrough infections. These 4 healthcare workers had mild symptoms but were found to have high viral loads (cycle thresholds [Ct] <25), with prolonged viral shedding for up to 32 days following the diagnosis. Genomic analysis of the spike protein variants (delHV69/70, N501Y, A570D, D614G, and P681H) was done and classified all strains as the B.1.1.7 variant, or the Alpha variant. Researchers thus concluded that vaccinated healthcare workers can be infected with variants of concern transmitted from unvaccinated contacts in the household and may potentially transmit the infection in the hospital if not identified in time… (DG Alerts)