Similar duration of viral shedding of the severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) delta variant between vaccinated and incompletely vaccinated individuals

Abstract

Among outpatients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to the severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) δ (delta) variant who did and did not receive 2 vaccine doses at 7 days after symptom onset, there was no difference in viral shedding (cycle threshold difference 0.59, 95% CI, -4.68 to 3.50; P = .77) with SARS-CoV-2 cultured from 2 (7%) of 28 and 1 (4%) of 26 outpatients, respectively.

Fig. 1.

Cycle threshold values from a self-collected oral–nasal swab at day 7 following symptom onset for the SARS-CoV-2 E-gene separated by vaccine doses. The triangles denote the specimens where SARS-CoV-2 could be cultured of the 25 with the lowest cycle thresholds that were evaluated.