A 26-year-old Mumbai doctor Shrushti Halari has tested positive thrice in 13 months even after taking both doses of a vaccine.
Dr Shrushti Halari was on Covid duty at the Veer Savarkar Hospital in Mumbai’s Mulund area. She was first tested positive on June 17 last year. It was a mild infection at that point and recovered.
Dr Halari took the first vaccine dose (Covishield) on March 8 this year and the second on April 29 along with her family.
After taking both the COVID vaccine doses Dr Halari was again tested positive twice. On May 29 Dr Halari tested positive for a second time, this time with mild symptoms.
The doctor’s family father, mother and brother, who have co-morbidities were also tested positive, for the first time each, this month after taking both doses of a vaccine.
This has raised a debate over the efficacy of Covid vaccines against new variants of the coronavirus.
Her family was hospitalised, and samples from the doctor and the brother are being analysed to establish the variant (or variants) that infected them and their family.
On July 11 Dr Halari was again tested positive again, and this time it was the entire family. All four members are being treated with Remdesivir.
“This third time I suffered more… my family and I were hospitalised, needed Remdesivir. My brother and mother have diabetes and my father has hypertension and cholesterol problems. My brother had difficulty breathing, so he was kept on oxygen for two days,” Dr Halari said.
The doctor also said a test for Covid antibodies in the blood returned positive results.
On the efficacy of vaccines against the virus experts said the doses do not translate to immunity but the infections are milder that rarely require hospitalization.
