24 vaccinated friends had a blast vacation on Cape Cod. Although their symptoms were mild, 14 of them caught COVID-19, according to the report.

• Twenty-four fully vaccinated friends had a weeklong getaway on July 4 in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

• Fourteen of them caught COVID-19.

• The cases were part of a larger study that prompted the CDC to change its interior masking guidelines.

• See more stories on the Insider business page.

Fourteen of the 24 vaccinated friends who visited the Cape Cod town of Provincetown, Massachusetts, in July, contracted COVID-19, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.

The group traveled to the seaside town for a week-long getaway around July 4, according to the report.

Daniel Barefoot was a member of the group. The 33-year-old lawyer living in Washington realized he caught COVID-19 when he couldn’t taste a candy after returning home, he told Bloomberg.

Of the 14 friends who tested positive for COVID-19, none were seriously ill, according to the report.

Provincetown was home to a large epidemic among those vaccinated

Friends weren’t the only ones infected. About 60,000 people visited the city around the weekend of July 4th.

There were conga lines, drag brunches and house parties, The New York Times reported, which appear to have helped spread the virus.

Bloomberg reported that Barefoot and his friends found long lines, crowded dance floors and crowded crowds while on vacation – but they felt reassured by the high levels of vaccination there.

But that was not enough to stop an outbreak, even though almost no one has experienced the worst symptoms of COVID-19, which rarely hospitalizes or kills people who have been vaccinated but does so much more often for the unvaccinated.

The Provincetown outbreak prompted the city to reinstate indoor mask warrants on July 25, and that sparked interest from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a study released Friday, the CDC followed 469 cases among Massachusetts residents who visited the city.

They found that 74% of them were fully vaccinated. The overwhelming majority of cases have been caused by the Delta variant, the study reported.

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But because vaccines dramatically reduce the risk of serious illness, only four of those vaccinated have been hospitalized. None are dead.

Of those who reported symptoms, the most common were mild and included a cough, sore throat, and fever.

Infection in vaccinees could be breeding ground for mutations

The breakthrough in Massachusetts prompted the CDC to update its guidelines for those vaccinated.

Last week, the CDC recommended that all people, including those who are fully vaccinated, wear masks indoors as the Delta variant spreads across the country.

“Some vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant after vaccination can be contagious and transmit the virus to others,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC last week.

Dr Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said on Sunday that the guidelines were aimed at protecting those who are not vaccinated.

But it has another goal: it limits widespread infection among those vaccinated, which could lead the virus to develop mutations against the vaccine, as Aylin Woodward and Hilary Brueck of Insider reported.

The virus is “only a few mutations potentially far away” from completely evading vaccines, Walensky said on Tuesday.

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