BHUBANESWAR: Two days after a 71-year-old contractual doctor of Rourkela Government Hospital tested positive for Covid-19 despite completing the entore two-dose vaccination schedule, the State government on Sunday clarified that the report was erroneous. The repeat RT-PCR test conducted on Dr S Suleiman by the Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) was found negative. Tests also confirmed he has very high level of antibodies.
Additional Chief Secretary of Health department PK Mohapatra said the re-test of the original sample conducted by the RMRC also was found to be negative. This implies the positive result at Ispat General Hospital, Rourkela may have been due to contamination of sample. The antibody level shows the vaccine worked as expected, he said.
On March 3, Dr Suleiman had developed a bad cough after taking the second dose of Covishield three weeks ago. He had taken the first shot on January 16. He went for a rapid antigen test which came out positive. An RT-PCR test conducted the next day also had confirmed his Covid-19 positive status.He was immediately put in home isolation but the Health department had decided to further crosscheck the infection status by taking fresh samples for testing at RMRC.