An Ottawa nurse has tested positive for COVID-19 about two weeks after getting vaccinated, CBC reports.
The Nurse, Santosh Baral said he was speechless when his results came back positive for COVID-19 last week after a routine test.
He was among Ottawa’s front-line health-care workers to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the first week of the local distribution campaign in mid-December.
The Nurse said he received his first dose on December 18, 2020, and his second dose on January 8, 2021.
A few days after he received the second injection, Baral said he tested negative for the coronavirus as part of a routine test on January 13.
But a week later, on January 20, the test came back positive.
Baral said he is always diligent about following his workplace’s COVID-19 safety protocols and had to start scanning his memory, thinking of where he could have been exposed to the virus.
“I felt very guilty, maybe I missed something, he said.
He also said he feels fine but is at home self-isolating until he is sure it is safe to return to work.
“I thank God I don’t have any symptoms so far, but who knows whatever is happening in my body. So definitely I have some anxiety, Baral said.
Clinical immunologist and allergist Dr Zainab Abdurrahman said there are a number of possibilities why Baral could have tested positive.
She said a person could be exposed to the virus before the doses take full effect as it takes up to a week to ten days after getting both vaccinations before becoming fully immune.
Abdurrahman added that while both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are 95 per cent effective, there’s a small chance that one could still catch COVID-19 after one fully vaccinated.
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