Covid-19: Hospitalisation of vaccinated people reported in Karachi

KARACHI: Around 200 people, who were either vaccinated fully or just received a single dose of Covid-19 vaccine, have so far been admitted to different public and private hospitals in Karachi during the last two months after contracting the viral infection, health officials and experts said, adding that at least two of the vaccinated persons had died so far in the city. But the officials claimed that the number of people hospitalised with Covid-19, despite being fully vaccinated, could be much higher as most of the hospitals were not keeping data of vaccinated patients, who were being brought to Covid-19 wards requiring treatment. Even there could be some deaths among fully or partially vaccinated people, they added.

Infectious diseases experts, however, termed the hospitalisation of fully or partially vaccinated people ‘very few in number’, saying as per the initial data only two in 1,000 people, who received one or both shots of vaccine, required hospitalisation in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) or High Dependency Unit (HDU) after contracting the SARS-CoV-2 or Coronavirus infection in the city.

“We have received around 40 fully or partially vaccinated people during the last two and a half months who required hospitalization in the intensive care or high dependency units due to Covid-19. One of these people, an elderly person who had received just a single shot of vaccine, died during treatment at our health facility,” Dr Abdul Wahid Rajput, Medical Superintendent of Infectious Diseases Hospital and Research Center at NIPA, Karachi, told The News on Sunday.

Dr Rajput maintained that the number of people hospitalised with Covid-19 after vaccination could be much higher as data of such patients was not being kept by the hospitals but added that for the last two and a half months, they had started asking about the vaccinated patients being brought to the hospital and it turned out that even fully or partially-vaccinated people were getting sick with Covid-19.

To a query, he said hospitalisation of Covid-19 patients had started rising in the country as all the three ICUs at their hospital having 16 beds each were fully occupied while 85 percent of the HDU beds were also occupied at the health facility.

Another infectious diseases expert, Dr Azizullah Dhiloo also confirmed that people vaccinated with one or both doses of Covid-19 vaccines were continuously being brought to public and private hospitals for treatment, adding so far the accurate number of such patients was not available as nobody was keeping the data of such persons. “Infectious diseases experts working at different hospitals are reporting hospitalisation of vaccinated patients with Covid-19 but accurate data or number of such patients is not available. It is the job of the government and the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) to ascertain the accurate data in this regard,” he added.

Dr Dhiloo, however, made it clear that hospitalisation of 200 or even two thousand people in a city where millions have so far been vaccinated was ‘not a big deal’ and urged the people to get themselves vaccinated.