22 PGIMS, Rohtak doctors test positive for COVID-19

Twenty-two doctors from the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak have tested positive for COVID-19. Fourteen of them had already taken the COVID-19 vaccine, hospital authorities said on Wednesday.

Dr Pushpa Dahiya Medical Superintendent of the hospital said, "A total of 22 resident doctors of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department have tested positive for COVID-19 over a span of the last 14 days. Of these 22 doctors, 14 had already taken the vaccine."

"12 doctors out of the 14 took the first dose in the last week of February or in the first week of March. There are two doctors who took two doses of vaccines. They were infected with coronavirus within one week of getting the second dose," she further said.

"Initially there were two positive cases, then four and in the last 24 hours we are feeling that the positivity rate is getting very high and so we need to know the cause," she added.

"When the coronavirus pandemic started in the country, we made it mandatory that everyone admitted to the labour room had their RTPCR samples taken, health care workers and doctors have been reminded repeatedly of COVID-19 guidelines," she further said.

"Doctors who took two vaccine doses contracting the infection is a warning to those who are forgetting COVID-19 etiquettes after taking just one dose of vaccine. It is very risky. The antibodies will take time to form in the body. Everyone should take proper precautions for 28 days after getting the second dose of the vaccine. In spite of all this, the efficacy of the vaccine is only around 70 per cent, so precautions cannot be forgotten," she added.

"5 doctors have been infected two times. It may be possible that they may be infected with different strains, we are not sure," she said.

( With inputs from ANI )