COVID: Study finds Alpha variant may cause more breakthrough infections than expected

While the world is still struggling to battle out the spread of the Delta variant of Coronavirus, a new study revealed that the Alpha variant or B.1.1.7 caused a higher number of breakthrough infections than expected among healthcare workers in Germany, who were administered the Pfizer vaccine. The 'breakthrough infections' refer to infections that occur over 14 days after someone has been fully vaccinated. It implies whether a person has been tested positive for the virus and does not refer to the severity of illness suffered from the disease. Since no COVID-19 vaccine is 100% effective, there are chances even fully vaccinated people may still be tested positive for the virus. Many such cases have already been reported across the world.

The study examined at least 1,137 health care workers 

The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, based its findings after researchers examined at least 1,137 health care workers who were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The study found that among these, four women (0.35%) had breakthrough infections. Among those four women, three were tested positive after coming in contact with unvaccinated people, while one was tested positive during the hospital’s routine screening. Researchers stated that this failure was higher than 0.05% which was recorded during the phase 3 trials of the vaccine. In the phase 3 trials of the Pfizer vaccine, Out of the 21,720 participants who were fully vaccinated with Pfizer vaccine, eight people were tested positive for Covid-19 at least seven days after the second dose, noted the findings on phase 3 trials of the vaccine. 

Alpha variant was first identified in South Africa

The research team also noted that healthcare workers with breakthrough infections got cured at least after 32 days after being diagnosed and had to suffer mild symptoms along with high viral loads.  It should be mentioned here that all the breakthrough infections were classified as the B.1.1.7 or Alpha variant. This variant was first identified in South Africa. The study found that even fully vaccinated health care workers can transmit Covid-19 in the hospital if not screened early enough and be infected with variants of concern. Apart from being more transmissible than the original SARS-CoV-2, the variants of concern may also escape vaccine protection very often, said researchers, adding that some vaccines are found to be less effective against new emerging variants.

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