Breakthrough COVID-19 risk ‘low’ but symptoms can linger
A study of infection in vaccinated healthcare workers in Israel comes as the country moves to offer booster shots
Vaccinated patients with breakthrough COVID-19 infection tend to have mild or no symptoms, but one in five experience long COVID, according to findings from an Israeli study.
Analysis of data on nearly 1500 health workers fully vaccinated with Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine identified 39 breakthrough infections, said the authors from the Israeli Ministry of Health.
A third of these workers were asymptomatic throughout the period of infection and were only tested because they were exposed to COVID-19 or as part of surveillance.
The rest had mild symptoms, with none hospitalised, acccording to findings published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
