Fully vaccinated people infected with Delta are infectious for shorter time — expert

Image: koto_feja/IStock.com via AFP

MANILA, Philippines — Fully vaccinated individuals who were infected with the Delta variant of COVID-19 appears to be infectious for a shorter period than the unvaccinated, a member of the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) Vaccine Expert Panel (VEP) said Tuesday.

Dr. Rontgene Solante, an infectious disease expert, said that fully vaccinated individuals infected with the highly transmissible variant can still be infectious.

“Based on current evidence, kung nagka-Delta variant infection ‘yung fully vaccinated [if a fully vaccinated individual is infected with the Delta variant], they can still be infectious but only for a shorter period of time compared to the unvaccinated,” he said in an online media forum organized by the Philippine College of Physicians and the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

“That’s why being vaccinated is very important,” he stressed.

Solante, however, did not mention how many days a fully-vaccinated person infected with the variant can still be infectious. According to the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), available data indicate that “adults with mild to moderate COVID-19 remain infectious no longer than 10 days after symptom onset.”

Also according to the CDC website, previous variants typically produced less virus in the body of infected fully vaccinated individuals than in the unvaccinated.

“In contrast, the Delta variant seems to produce the same high amount of virus in both unvaccinated and fully vaccinated people. However, like other variants, the amount of virus produced by Delta breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated people also goes down faster than infections in unvaccinated people,” the US body explained.

“This means fully vaccinated people are likely infectious for less time than unvaccinated people,” CDC added.

Health authorities have been monitoring the Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus first reported in India, after it largely contributed to the surge in COVID-19 cases in neighboring Asian countries. According to experts, an individual infected with the variant may infect five to eight persons.

Solante said that while the Delta variant and other variants of concern affect the neutralizing antibody from some vaccines, current anti-COVID shots still provide protection against the  severe form of the disease.

“Just like any of those three variants of concern, ‘yung neutralizing antibody are affected also by this Delta variant, particularly with the mRNA including that of Astra, Janssen and some inactivated vaccines in the form of Sinovac and Covaxin,” he explained.

“But data will tell us that even if bumababa ‘yung mga neutralizing antibody (the neutralizing antibody becomes lower), there is still protection especially in the prevention of severe disease, symptomatic disease in infection,” he added.

Latest data from the DOH showed that the country has 807 confirmed cases of the Delta variant so far. The government earlier placed Metro Manila, the country’s economic hub, into enhanced community quarantine in order to prevent a spike in cases due to the said variant.

The country currently has 106,672 active COVID-19 cases as of Monday, including 14,610 new cases. It was the third consecutive day that the country recorded over 14,000 new cases of the respiratory disease.

RELATED STORIES:

COVID-19 Delta variant detected in all PH regions except Caraga 

Delta is ‘pandemic of unvaccinated’ bigger than breakthrough infections 

JPV