Jamshedpur doctor tests Covid positive after taking both doses of vaccine
The DC said there’s no need to panic as there would be some exceptions as the efficacy of the Covishield vaccine is above 60% while the same for Covaxin is about 80%.
A doctor from Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College and Hospital (MGMMCH) in Jamshedpur tested Covid-19 positive after taking both doses of Covishield vaccine. His wife also tested positive. However, she has not been inoculated yet. an official said on Wednesday evening.
District nodal officer (IDSP) and additional chief medical officer (ACMO) Dr Sahir Pal said the doctor couple have been put under home isolation as both were asymptomatic and kept under round the clock observation.
25 contacts tested, beauty salon sealed
“A Beauty Salon and Spa under Sakchi police here has been sealed this afternoon where doctor’s wife had availed the services. RT-PCR tests have been done on seven salon staff while 18 close contacts of the doctor couple have also been tested for Covid-19 on Wednesday. All of them have been asked to quarantine themselves till test reports come. We will conduct RT-PCR tests on the couple again after seven days and decide if their samples should be sent to Pune for advanced test for new Covid-19 strain,” said Dr Pal.
Preliminary examination has found some patches in the chest of the doctor’s wife while the doctor is comparatively in good health despite being a cancer patient himself.
No need to panic
Jamshedpur district deputy commissioner Suraj Kumar said there’s no need to panic as there would be some exceptions as the efficacy of the Covishield vaccine is above 60% while the same for Covaxin is about 80%.
“No vaccine is 100% effective as of now. The target and effort is to achieve 50-60% immunity through vaccination while 30-35% through natural immunity via development of antibodies, eventually leading to herd immunity. It takes 45 to 60 days for antibodies to develop after both the doses of vaccine and once this is achieved, people will be immune for next 2-3 years and thus breaking the infection chain,” said Kumar.
Expert opinion
State IDSP nodal officer and eminent epidemiologist Dr Praveen Kumar Karn said there would be cases of coincidence as Covishield is 66.6% effective and efficacy of Covaxin is 81% as per trial run on 25, 000 volunteers.
“Herd immunity is, however, a far away situation because that happens only after over 70-80% population is infected and has naturally developed antibodies. Covid-19 had reached peak in India in September 2020 bringing herd immunity. But cases dropped and so did the herd immunity phenomenon,” said Dr Karn.
He said the findings of sero survey by ICMR last year in three districts of the state were not adequate to reach a conclusion. “We are still awaiting the report of sero survey in 10 districts by the state government with the help of ICMR. On the other hand, only 6.50 lakh or about 20% people in the state have been vaccinated so far. We may reach a conclusive result only after more intensive vaccination and sero survey covering all age groups, comorbid, general and migrating population across cities and villages across the state,” said Dr Karn.
Vaccination figures
On Tuesday, a total of 2,108 people took first dose of the Covid vaccine and 1,144 took second dose in Jamshedpur (East Singhbhum) district.
Altogether 18, 726 persons have taken first dose while 9756 persons have taken second dose of the vaccine in the district till Tuesday night.
Jamshedpur district has registered 375 Covid-19 deaths so far, highest in Jharkhand.
The district has reported a total of 18, 379 Covid-19 positive cases, of which 17, 925 have been cured. Eighteen Covid-19 positive cases were detected on Tuesday.
