More than a month after recovering from COVID-19, Uttarakhand doctor tests 'positive' again

Guwahati: Officials in the Uttarakhand government on Thursday claimed that a doctor who tested coronavirus positive in July, has again tested positive for the virus in an antigen test.

According to the government officials, the doctor hailing from Dehradun has tested positive in an antigen test a whole month after he recovered the first time from Covid-19.

According to medical experts, in cases of suspected Covid reinfection, a genomic test of viral strains is required to ascertain whether the patient has been really reinfected. This has not been done in this case.

Dr Pankaj Singh, Uttarakhand surveillance officer, Integrated Diseases Surveillance Project, said that this is likely the first time that a case of reinfection of Covid-19 has been reported from Uttarakhand.

Singh added that the person who has tested positive had continued exposure to the virus and thus, could have gotten re-infected.

As per reports, the patient looks after the collection of Covid-19 samples for the health department in Dehradun. The patient first tested positive on July 23, and the second test (antigen) came positive on Monday.

Speaking under the condition of anonymity, the doctor said that around August 10, an RT-PCR test had also tested negative. Around the weekend, the patient developed a slight fever and cough got tested. On Monday, the doctor tested positive again. After the incident came to light, the health officials have taken a sample for RT-PCR test too, through which "they would be studying the viral strain," the patient said.

According to Dr Anurag Aggarwal, nodal officer for coronavirus treatment in Uttarakhand from Government Doon Medical College Hospital, said that when cases were first reported in the state, certain patients tested negative after around 30-35 days. So that could be the case in this situation, that the virus from the first time is active till 40-50 days from first testing positive. In a second scenario, it could be that he has been reinfected.

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