Lost Efficacy? 80 Indian Doctors Infected With COVID Despite Taking Two Doses of AstraZeneca

Amid a raging second wave of COVID infections, frontline workers of Indian hospitals have been reporting infection with coronavirus. These cases have been reported from the country's top hospitals and these dozens of doctors had been inoculated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in January this year.

At least 37 doctors at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi have tested positive for Covid-19 this month.

Speaking with Sputnik, the hospital authorities said, "32 of them have mild symptoms and are in home isolation, while five are under treatment at the hospital." 

​"Those who are admitted in hospital are above age 50 and don't want to stay at home due to personal reasons," Ajay Sehgal, the spokesperson of the hospital, told Sputnik.

Sehgal confirms that all these doctors were vaccinated with both doses of the Covishield vaccine.

On Wednesday, King George's Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow also reported that as many as 40 of its doctors and vice-chancellor have tested positive for COVID-19.

However, KGMU hospital staff told Sputnik, "We don't have any confirmation on numbers. It will take 4-5 days to confirm how many doctors got infected with Covid-19." 

At KGMU, too, most of the doctors who tested positive had taken both shots of Covishield vaccine, sources said. The hospital authorities, however, did not share details about their vaccination status.

According to the study published in The Lancet, Covishield’s efficacy is reported only 55.1 percent when the two doses are administered less than six weeks apart. Currently, India is administering Covishield’s first and second doses in a six-week gap.

India is currently seeing the second wave of Covid-19 infection, daily cases in India have increased five-fold to over 100,000 from 20,000 in just two weeks. On Friday, the country reported 131,968 cases and 780 COVID-related deaths, another single-day high.