Patna: Medical fraternity in Bihar is worried after a young doctor posted with a prominent government hospital got infected with COVID-19 virus twice despite being fully vaccinated.
Health officials said the young assistant professor in gynaecology oncology currently working with Patna’s Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) was vaccinated in January and March this year. But since then, she has tested positive for coronavirus twice, alarming the health authorities.
The authorities have now ordered for sample testing to find out which variant of the COVID-19 is frequently infecting the doctor despite she took both doses of the vaccine. “It’s very necessary for us to know which variant is frequently infecting her although she is fully vaccinated,” IGIMS medical superin-tendent Dr Manish Mandal told the media on Tuesday.
According to the health authorities, the said doctor first got infected in May during the second wave of the COVID-19 and now, she is again infected. The doctor tested positive for coronavirus on Monday, prompting the authorities to go for contact tracing.
“She developed high fever and complained of severe body ache last week. Though her fever subsided, she found her smell and taste gone. On Monday, she tested positive for COVID-19,” Dr Mandal informed.
The news has alarmed the doctors who have been attending the COVID-19 patients and mingling with common patients at the state-run hospitals. “This is indeed a matter of concern for all of us. We have already lost quite many doctor colleagues due to COVID-19,” state Indian Medical Association (IMA) secretary Dr Sunil Kumar said.
“Doctors are falling victim to viral loads since they have been interacting with the patients reaching the hospitals for treatment. We are bound to suffer burn injuries if we jump into the fire,” Dr Kumar said. According to a report of the IMA, a total of 159 doctors have died due to COVID-19 in Bihar so far.
He, however, said the vaccination is likely to minimize chances of seriousness caused by COVID-19 in-fections. Bihar remained second from top in the country in matters of vaccinating maximum number of people on Monday. According to a report of the health department, a total of 1.63 million people took vaccines on Monday.
According to available statistics a total of 41.09 million people out of a total 104 million populations have been vaccinated in Bihar so far. Of the total vaccinated, 34.09 million have taken the single dose whereas 6.99 took both the doses.
