Tracking breakthrough COVID-19 infections in an Israeli hospital

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-07-29 07:00

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'Breakthrough' COVID-19 infections in fully vaccinated people could be linked to a weaker immune response after vaccination, according to an international study. Researchers monitored fully vaccinated healthcare workers in an Israeli hospital to see how many still became infected. In a group of 1497 workers fully vaccinated with Pfizer, 39 became infected. Most of these workers had mild or no symptoms, however just under one in five were affected for more than six weeks. Looking at the level of antibodies in the system of the workers as they were becoming infected, the researchers say the infected workers had fewer antibodies than their colleagues who were not infected with the virus.