The increasing cases of medicos contracting coronavirus after getting first dose vaccines has hugely alarmed the medical fraternity in Bihar. So far, one MBBS student has died whereas six medical students have been left infected after taking the first dose of vaccine in the state.

Panic gripped the medical students at the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH), one of the two premier government hospitals in Patna, after 10 more of them tested positive earlier this week. Strangely, six of them had taken first dose of Covid vaccine in the first week of February, according to local doctors.

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“All the undergraduate students testing positive for the virus at the NMCH belong to 2016, 2018 and 2020 batches. They began to show symptoms of the virus from the last week,” a junior resident doctor associated with the vaccination drive at the NMCH Dr Papu Kumar Saifi told a local newspaper. Reports said majority of them contracted the virus well some 20 days after getting the first shot. Heath experts say one begins to develop immunity against the virus 14 days after getting the second jab of the vaccine.

Alarmed at the increasing infection among the medical students, the hospital authorities have collected swab samples of 270 other medicos for RT-PCR test. The test report is likely to come tonight or tomorrow, a NMCH official said.

There are some 700 medical students at the hospital. The hospital administration went into tizzy after a final year MBBS student Shubham Shekhar died, 22 days after he had taken the first dose of the Covaxin.

According to hospital officials, the deceased had taken the first shot of the Covaxin in the first week of February but was tested positive on 27 February.

Hospital sources said the medico had given his swab samples on 24 February after developing symptoms before leaving for his native village in Begusarai district. He was admitted to a private hospital after his condition deteriorated but he died later.

The medical superintendent of Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr Gopal Krishna too got infected after taking the first shot of the vaccine earlier. Subsequently, he was advised to go for home quarantine.

However, the Opposition legislators have refrained from getting the vaccines so far despite appeals by the chief minister to go for the shots.