Bhubaneswar: A contractual doctor working as Assistant Surgeon at the Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH) tested negative for COVID-19 on restest two days after testing positive for the deadly disease. The doctor had tested positive for COVID-19 seventeen days after receiving the second dose of vaccine.
Informing about the development, official sources Sunday said the 71-year-old doctor has tested negative for the virus in an RT-PCR test conducted at Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), Bhubaneswar.
According to a source, the septuagenarian doctor had received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine (Covishield) January 16 and second dose February 15.
Yet he developed COVID-19 symptoms March 1. The report of his RT-PCR test conducted March 4 came out COVID-19 positive. His swab sample was again collected Saturday and sent to Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), Bhubaneswar for another test.
The repeat RT-PCR test at RMRC here Saturday came out to be negative for coronavirus infection. He was also tested to have a dense presence of antibody. Meanwhile, his original sample which was collected at Ispat general Hospital (IGH) is being re-tested at RMRC to find out the status of the infection, it was learnt.
The doctor is presently under home isolation in Rourkela.
It is worth mentioning, 25 students of Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) in Burla were declared to have been tested positive for COVID-19 February 27. The hostels in the university were declared as Containment Zones and, as a precautionary measure, the VSSUT authorities had also postponed the examination schedule.
Three days later, they were declared negative for the virus infection. Reacting to the development, Health Secretary Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra had said, “None of the students of the university has been infected by the COVID-19 virus. The antigen kits used in testing were faulty. The reports came out to be negative after RT-PCR tests were conducted.”
PNN