The cases of fully vaccinated people in Odisha contracting Coronavirus a fortnight after receiving the second dose have grabbed the spotlight with 274 contracting the disease despite double dose of inoculation.

Of the 274 cases, 83.2% of the fully vaccinated people were found to be symptomatic but no such critical condition emerged for them. As a result, only 9.9 per cent of patients required hospitalization. A fully vaccinated person however succumbed to the disease after contracting the virus, according to a study by Regional Medical Research Center (RMRC)-Bhubaneswar.

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“We recorded the vaccine breakthrough cases of Covaxin and Covishield through passive and voluntary reporting at various healthcare facilities of Odisha. A total of 274 samples were found to be COVID-19 positive after 14 days of receiving complete doses of the vaccines. Almost 83.2% of the individuals were found to be symptomatic with 9.9% of those required hospitalization and were having less median antibody titers than individuals in home isolation”, RMRC-Bhubaneswar study report said.

It is anticipated that even with administration of effective authorized vaccines, breakthrough cases are expected to happen, till the immunity reaches sufficient levels among the population to further decrease transmission.

There was no significant difference between the antibody level in terms of gender, occupation, hospitalisation, and symptom status. The most common symptoms found were fever (88.5%) followed by cough (77.6%) and sore throat (59.6%). Comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, hypothyroidism and asthma were present in about 64 (23.3%) of fully vaccinated people, the study report said.

Although several studies have demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 infection in the vaccinated individuals present clinically mild symptoms, it is critical to determine whether severe symptoms can arise in others despite vaccination, as development of variants is a continuous process, the study pointed out.

In the present study, we attempted to record the breakthrough cases reported through passive and voluntary reporting at various healthcare facilities from different districts of Odisha, their clinical presentation, requirement of hospitalization post infection and antibody titer against spike antigen, RMRC officials concluded.