Vaccine breakthrough infection and onward transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Beta (B.1.351) variant, Bavaria, Germany, February to March 2021
Inge Kroidl, Ingo Mecklenburg, Peter Schneiderat, Katharina Müller, Philipp Girl, Roman Wölfel, Andreas Sing, Alexandra Dangel, Andreas Wieser, Michael Höelscher
Abstract
A breakthrough infection occurred in a fully Comirnaty (BNT162b2) vaccinated healthcare worker with high levels of neutralising antibodies with the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 (Beta) variant in February 2021. The infection was subsequently transmitted to their unvaccinated spouse. Sequencing revealed an identical virus in both spouses, with a match of all nine single nucleotide polymorphisms typical for B.1.351. To the best of our knowledge, no transmission of any variant of SARS-CoV-2 from a fully vaccinated person has been described before.
Topics & Concepts
Transmission (telecommunications)Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)VirologyCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)Spouse2019-20 coronavirus outbreakMedicineOutbreakDiseaseInternal medicineComputer scienceTelecommunicationsInfectious disease (medical specialty)SociologyAnthropologySARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 ResearchViral gastroenteritis research and epidemiologyAnimal Virus Infections Studies