In a scary development, few doctors across the medical colleges in Assam have tested positive for the COVID-19 contagion for the second time, sparking widespread fears about re-infection.
According to a report of NDTV, at least 6 doctors of Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH) have tested positive after gaining full recovery from the contagion. Besides, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been informed about similar cases coming out of Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).
The report quoted a senior virologist from ICMR Lahowal as saying, "The RT-PCR tests are a sensitive test so we cannot rule out the chances of false-positive, nor can we rule out re-infection if a patient has low anti-body count or in many cases do not develop the anti-body. Like any other virus here too, re-infection is possible but that would be very less. Only one percent of those people who have been treated for COVID-19 might develop re-infections. We have been updated with a few cases among doctors in medical colleges, thus we would see their anti-body count. This will reveal whether it's a re-infection or a fresh infection."
It also quoted the Principal of AMCH, Dr HK Goswami, as saying, "All we can confirm to you is that we have one of our doctors who has tested positive a second time, but the case is doubtful since it happened within the quarantine period."
As per the report, The Regional Medical Research Centre of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) located in Lahoal, Dibrugarh has started collecting the blood samples to ascertain if these are actually cases of re-infection or not.
