About 93 per cent of the 478 healthcare workers from urban health centers and hospitals under the jurisdiction of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) took either one or both doses. COVID-19 According to a survey, the vaccine had antibodies as recently as August.
Vaccinations were done for health workers between January and May and all of those people had taken Kovidshield. However, six percent of the sero surveyed people who had received both doses of the vaccine showed no presence of antibodies against the virus.
The AMC launched a study in late May to understand the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine, Covishield, among its healthcare workers who have received one dose or both, with the aim of tracking antibody titers every 15 days. period of six months.
Although samples were taken once every 15 days till August, but from September, samples are being taken once a month. According to an AMC health department official, the decision to change the sampling period was made “after observing that there was no physical difference in seropositivity over the two-week time frame.”
With a target sample size of 1,009 health workers in urban health centers in seven zones and five AMC hospitals, August saw the participation of 478 of the targeted health workers in the seventh sample.
Of the 478 samples, 51 subjects, who were part of the seventh sample, took only the first dose. Of them, 49 had developed antibodies while two had not. Of those who were fully vaccinated, 398 healthcare workers were found to have antibodies, while 29 were negative for antibodies.
The AMC hospitals included as part of the study include CH Nagri Eye Hospital, LG Hospital, SVP Hospital, VS Hospital and SCL Municipal General Hospital. Among those sampled were 398 who had taken both doses of the vaccine and showed the presence of antibodies against the novel coronavirus.
29 others were fully vaccinated and were not yet detected with any antibodies, which a health official of the AMC indicated, “could be the time elapsed between taking the second dose and taking the sample. ”
“Vaccination for health workers started from January 16. Suppose, someone took the first dose of the vaccine in January, then the second dose in February and March. It is possible that by August the antibodies may have subsided and the health worker may thus test negative for the antibody test. “
.