BMC orders study into Covid reinfection

To get an insight on how many patients have tested positive twice for Covid-19, the BMC has asked SevenHills Hospital to conduct a study. With cases dipping, the civic body has instructed the hospital to try and understand the symptoms, reasons and severity. Health officials said that SevenHills has treated more than 40,000 patients, of which around 700 contracted Covid twice. Dean of the hospital, Dr Balkrishna Adsul said they will analyse the available data of patients admitted to the hospital through a unique identification number, which has been updated on the HMIS portal. With this, pre and post-Covid history will be traced of the patients before they were admitted. They will also check for the vaccination status of these patients and any adverse effects they faced after taking the jab. The medicine department of the hospital, which is heading the study, said that till now they have traced 643 patients who tested positive twice, and 54 who got it thrice. “Our priority will be to check which vaccine did patients take and what was its effect. Later, we will check for symptoms reported during the first time of contracting the infection and symptoms for the second time,” he said. Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said that the BMC has instructed the SevenHills team to study the risk of Covid-19 reinfection and hospitalisation and also look into the role of immunity acquired from previous infection versus hybrid immunity acquired from previous infection and vaccination. He said, “This study will be very important as it will help us understand the virus and plan further strategies based on it. I have directed doctors at SevenHills to take this study very seriously.”