Study: Vaccinated People Less Likely To Infect Others, Or Be Hospitalized From Infection By New Strains

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A study by the Tel Hashomer-Sheba hospital in conjunction with Harvard university states that people who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus even after receiving one dose are less susceptible to infection and also less likely to infect others. The study, which involved 9,650 workers from the hospital from the time when their first dose was received, noted that the people who were vaccinated are less likely to infect others.

British Health Minister Sajid Javid said Monday that the obligation to isolate for people who have come in contact with coronavirus patients would be cancelled as of next month if the person was fully vaccinated. However he would still have to undergo a test to verify that he had not been infected.

Israel has been hit by the new Delta variant, which has caused rising levels of infection even among people vaccinated. Ran Balicer, chairman of Israel’s national expert panel on COVID-19, stressed that it was “too early to precisely assess vaccine effectiveness against the variant” first identified in India in April that is surging across the globe.

That is partly due to the overall low number of cases among fully vaccinated Israelis and because those cases are not evenly distributed across the population, further complicating efforts to reach conclusions about the data.

About half of the recent daily cases are among children. Some of the remaining cases appear among vaccinated adults.

“To some extent that could be expected since 85 percent of Israeli adults are vaccinated,” Balicer said. “But the rates in which we see these breakthrough cases make some believe they extend beyond that expected point and suggest some decrease in vaccine effectiveness against mild illness — but not severe illness — is likely.”

The Israeli Health Minister estimated Monday that the vaccine is 64% effective in preventing infection but 93% effective in preventing hospitalization, meaning that more than 9 out of 10 cases will still lead to a mild illness.