Five doctors in Chamarajanagar near here have tested positive for COVID-19 even after receiving their first dose of vaccine.
Out of the seven doctors who had tested positive during the last three to four days, five had taken their first dose of vaccination about a week ago, confirmed health officials.
While three doctors had received a jab of Covaxin, the other two had been vaccinated with Covishield.
One doctor, who tested positive, is the COVID-19 nodal officer of Chamarajanagar district, while two are from Chamarajanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (CIMS) and two others are from Chamarajanagar District Hospital.
Their vaccinations were scheduled on different dates between January 18 and 20. However, the doctors experienced mild symptoms of COVID-19 within days after receiving vaccinations and underwent a test in two to three days only to return positive.
Four of the five doctors are in home isolation while one is in the hospital as the doctor has a child at home
Chamarajanagar District Health Officer M.C. Ravi confirmed that five doctors, who had received vaccinations, had tested positive, but hastened to add that “it would be incorrect to say that they had tested positive because of receiving the vaccination”.
“Also, the vaccine will take its own time ranging anywhere between four to six weeks to develop antibodies. The doctors may have taken vaccination when the virus was in incubation period. Some of them showed symptoms the very next day and others showed after two or three days”, Dr. Ravi said.
“Some of the doctors, who had tested positive, were working in the same unit in the same hospital”. The doctors testing positive had received the vaccination on different dates and showed symptoms on different dates.
The turn of the two other doctors, who had tested positive, for receiving vaccination had not yet come.
The second dose of the vaccine is given four weeks after the first dose, said Dr. Ravi while pointing out that it took about four to six weeks after the first dose for the antibodies to develop.
However, he said the symptoms of all the doctors, who had tested positive, are mild. “They are all fine. There is nothing to worry.”
But, he cautioned people against complacency over the guidelines for COVID-19 following the arrival of vaccine. Contending that people in the general population may be asymptomatic and yet carry the virus, he said social distancing, wearing of masks and washing of hands should be strictly followed to keep COVID-19 at bay.
