Assam doctor, fully vaccinated, gets infected with 2 Covid variants; Experts decode the reason

New Delhi: A fully vaccinated doctor in Assam’s Dibrugarh district has been found to be simultaneously infected with two different COVID-19 variants of concern — Alpha and Delta.

According to Dr BJ Borkakoti, Senior Scientist, Regional Medical Research Centre, Dibrugarh, the double infection will be similar to any other mono-infection.

“A doctor was found to be infected simultaneously with both the variants – Alpha and Delta. It will be similar to any other mono-infection of the virus, nothing to worry that the dual infection will cause the severe disease, it is not like that,” Dr Borkakoti said.

He added, “We have followed the case for one month and she is quite all right. She was fully vaccinated.”

This development comes at a time when COVID-19 cases in the country’s north-eastern states are seeing a worrying rise. The second wave peaked in Assam in May with over 6,500 cases. The state is still recovering from the wave. As many as 1,797 new cases were reported on Monday.

The first rare case was seen in March when a 90-year-old Belgian woman was affected with the 2 variants. She carried both alpha and beta variants (recorded in both South Africa and the UK respectively) and she was declared dead after 5 days.

According to reports, this rare case was discussed at the European Congress on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. The experts said that these rare cases are not surprising and these two variants can be seen together. They said that these cases can be common at the place when so many people got infected in such a small time period.

“If somebody is exposed to more than one infected person, he or she can get the infection from any or all of them. There is nothing that prevents such an eventuality”, said V S Chauhan, former director of the Delhi-based International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.

Chauhan further added, “The virus takes some time to multiply inside the body and affects all the cells. Till that happens, some cells can be available to host the virus from another source. The immunity against the pathogen takes some time, a few days, to be built. During that time period, it is entirely possible to get infected from more than one person.” It was also reported that these cases are more likely to occur among those people who are affected by HIV patients.

According to the union health ministry, there are currently 17,454 active cases in the state. As many as 5,26,607 recoveries and 5,019 deaths have been reported so far.

A total of 89,40,107 doses of COVID vaccines have been administered so far, including 73,82,885 first doses and 15,57,222 second doses.