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. 2021 Jul;26(30):2100673.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.30.2100673.

Vaccine breakthrough infection and onward transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Beta (B.1.351) variant, Bavaria, Germany, February to March 2021

Inge Kroidl  1   2 , Ingo Mecklenburg  3 , Peter Schneiderat  3 , Katharina Müller  2   4 , Philipp Girl  2   4 , Roman Wölfel  2   4 , Andreas Sing  5 , Alexandra Dangel  5 , Andreas Wieser  1   2 , Michael Hoelscher  1   2
Affiliations

Vaccine breakthrough infection and onward transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Beta (B.1.351) variant, Bavaria, Germany, February to March 2021

Inge Kroidl et al. Euro Surveill. 2021 Jul.

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.

Keywords: B.1.351; SARS-CoV-2; breakthrough infection; transmission; unvaccinated partner; vaccination.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure
Figure
Timeline of events in a case of breakthrough infection in a fully vaccinated HCW and onward transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Beta (B.1.351) variant to unvaccinated spouse, Bavaria, Germany, February to March 2021
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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