By Katie Teague

CNET

August 12, 2021

 

The highly contagious delta variant continues to cause a spike in COVID-19 infections across the US, especially in areas with low vaccination rates. But the variant is also breaking through to infect vaccinated people. Studies by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the delta infection has similarly high viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated people. So what does that mean as more of these breakthrough cases are happening?

Currently, 167 million people in the US have been fully vaccinated, a little over half the country's total population. The CDC's research suggesting that vaccinated people infected with delta can also easily transmit the virus was the key factor motivating the new federal guidance that fully vaccinated individuals continue to wear masks indoors. At the same time, the CDC report underlines that the number of cases and deaths among fully vaccinated people is small compared with the unvaccinated.