Coronavirus / Fully vaccinated woman doctor in Assam catches 2 COVID variants at the same time

Guwahati: A woman doctor in Assam was infected with two different variants of Sars-Cov-2 virus at the same time, tests at regional medical research centre (RMRC) in Dibrugarh of Indian Council for Medical Research has shown.

Despite being fully vaccinated, the doctor got infected by both the Alpha and Delta variants of the virus a month after taking the second dose. She had mild symptoms and recovered without hospitalisation.

“A double infection happens when two variants infect one person simultaneously or within a very short period of time. It occurs when someone gets infected with one variant, but gets re-infected with another variant within 2-3 days of the first infection and before antibodies could develop,” said Dr B J Borkakoty, senior scientist at RMRC. He said that during the initial phase of the second wave in Assam around February-March this year, most Covid-19 cases were due to the Alpha variant. Then after the assembly elections in April, cases of Delta variant infections started to emerge.

The RMRC lab detected the double infection in the doctor in early May.

The woman’s husband, also a doctor, was infected by the Alpha variant.

“While it is very common to get cases of infection with lineage A and reinfection with lineage B, there have also been quite a few cases seen of infection with lineage A + B,” Dr Anurag Agarwal, director, CSIR-IGIB in Delhi, said.