Odisha doctor tests Covid-19 positive after vaccination, again tests negative

S Suleiman, who worked in Rourkela Government Hospital, was found positive for Covid-19 even after receiving two doses of the Covishield vaccine.

A 71-year-old doctor working in a government hospital of Rourkela, Odisha tested positive for Covid-19 three weeks after receiving the second dose of the vaccine. A retest, however, found him negative for the virus.

A medical staff member prepares the Covid-19 vaccine. (AP)

Officials said S Suleiman, who worked in Rourkela Government Hospital as a contractual doctor, was found positive for Covid-19 through RT-PCR testing even after receiving two doses of the Covishield vaccine. On March 3, Suleiman had developed a bad cough and went for a rapid antigen test which came out positive for the disease. He then went for an RT-PCR test, which also confirmed his Covid-19 positive status on Thursday evening.

The 71-year-old doctor was surprised as he had taken the first dose of Covishield on January 16 and the second dose on February 15.

“I thought I had got the infection at the OPD, where I used to be surrounded by patients who would not adhere to the safety guidelines,” he said.

Health department officials said a repeat RT-PCR test on the doctor was conducted at Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar on Saturday and the result came out negative. His antibody test at the RMRC also showed the presence of a very high amount of antibodies.

Additional chief secretary of health department PK Mohapatra ordered a re-test of the original sample which came positive for the virus. Mohapatra said that the RMRC confirmed that Dr Suleiman's original sample has also tested negative. "The initial positive result may have been due to contamination," he said.

Last week, the Odisha government had asked a company to explain how its rapid antigen test kits tested samples of 25 engineering students of Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology in Sambalpur district as all of them tested positive for the virus without showing any symptoms of Covid-19. Subsequently, an RT-PCR test was ordered which showed all of them to be negative for the infection.

But the Delhi-based company that supplied the kits continued to maintain that the test kits worked fine. Oscar Medicare Pvt Ltd, which had supplied the kits, performed a live demo of the kits in the presence of the nodal officer of Covid-19 at VIMSAR, Burla, and declared that the kits were fine and met all the parameters as per the ICMR and the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation guidelines.