RIVM: Covid vaccines also protect against spreading Delta variant

The coronavirus vaccines protect against transmission of the Delta variant of the virus, the RIVM wrote based on research with data from August and September this year. Fully vaccinated people who become infected are 63 percent less likely to transmit the virus to unvaccinated housemates than infected people who were not vaccinated.

People who are vaccinated are less likely to get infected. Here too, it matters whether you have contact with the coronavirus through a vaccinated or an unvaccinated person. A vaccinated person who is infected transmits the virus 40 percent less often to a vaccinated housemate than an unvaccinated person who is infected.

The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) previously concluded that the vaccines protect against the transmission of the Alpha variant. That research was based on information from source and contact tracing from February to the end of May when that coronavirus variant was still dominant in the Netherlands. The vaccines protect slightly better against the transmission of the Alpha variant than against the transmission of the Delta variant. Still, the RIVM calls the protection against transmission of the now dominant variant just as "considerable."