Number of medicos testing positive for Covid-19 rises to 10 at Patna’s NMCH

One of the infected students who took the first dose of the vaccine early last month, died at Begusarai on March 1, after testing positive for SARS CoV-2 on February 25.

One more medical student tested positive for coronavirus at Patna’s Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH) on Wednesday, taking the total tally of students to have contracted Covid-19 recently to 10.

The three-week drop in number of new infections is significant in view of enormous amount of sampling, particularly the RT-PCR tests, being done lately(HT File Photo)

Six of the 10 medicos to have tested positive had taken the first dose of the vaccine in the first week of February, said Dr Papu Kumar Saifi, a junior resident doctor and post-graduate second year student of medicine department, also associated with the vaccination drive at the hospital.

“All the undergraduate students who tested positive for the virus belong to 2016, 2018 and 2020 MBBS batches. Nine had tested positive by Tuesday, while one medico tested positive today. They began to show symptoms of the virus from February 25,” added Dr Saifi.

One begins to develop immunity against the virus 14 days after the second dose of the vaccine, which is taken after a minimum 28 days of the first dose, say experts.

One of the infected students, Shubhendu Shubham, 23, of MBBS 2016 batch, who took the first dose of the vaccine early last month, died at Begusarai on March 1, after testing positive for SARS CoV-2 on February 25.

“We have sent samples of 270 medicos for RT-PCR tests. We expect to get the results later tonight. So far, nine of our students have tested positive out of which one died on March 1. We have hospitalised eight students at our medical college,” said Dr Hiralal Mahto, NMCH principal.

Bihar’s health minister Mangal Pandey expressed grief over the demise of the medico in Begusarai.

"Death of a doctor is saddening; the government is putting in all efforts (to contain the spread of the virus). Some more doctors have reportedly tested positive after his death," Pandey told reporters.