Ground report: Chennai’s RGGGH docs express hope as they line up for vaccination

The hospital is among the six government healthcare centres to provide both Covishield and Covaxin to volunteers.
Covid-19 vaccine drive, Chennai
Covid-19 vaccine drive, Chennai
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The buzz in Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH), Chennai, was palpable. From treating thousands of patients for COVID-19 to having a dozen of its own doctors infected with the virus, the hospital has seen it all in the last ten months. On Saturday, as several senior doctors and postgraduate (PG) residents lined up to get the first shots of the COVID-19 vaccine, they looked hopeful for better days in the future. 

At the forefront of the state’s fight against COVID-19 pandemic, these doctors and PG residents have all put in continuous duty in COVID wards, lived in hotels due to quarantine requirements and constant exposure to COVID-19 patients for months, experienced emotional exhaustion from witnessing several people die on their watch, among other things. 

RGGGH, one of the oldest government hospitals in Tamil Nadu, has treated around 30,000 patients for COVID-19 till date. The hospital has also conducted over 5.29 lakh RT-PCR tests and has reported a recovery rate of 95% as per the data available with the hospital. With 1,618 beds and 435 ICU beds to treat COVID-19 patients, the hospital also had 251 plasma donors and 487 recipients of plasma from those who recovered from the disease. 

Tamil Nadu received 5,36,550 doses of the Serum Institute of India-manufactured Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine, Covishield, and 20,000 doses of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin to be administered to healthcare workers across the state. Six district hospitals across the state will have Covaxin and Covishield for volunteers while a total of 166 sites have been identified to administer only Covishield. Around 98,000 healthcare workers had registered as of 6 pm on  January 13 on the CoWIN portal to receive the vaccine across the state. 

For Dr B Priyanka, a PG resident at RGGGH, this has been a long-awaited day. After seeing hundreds of patients come to the hospital with COVID-19 and even her family getting infected, it was a conscious choice she made to receive Covaxin on Saturday. With the signed consent form in her hand, she told TNM that she personally felt confident about Covaxin because it is made with an inactive virus. She added though, that the vaccine is just an added precaution to the existing methods like wearing masks and washing hands frequently. 

Around 94 doctors and PG residents from RGGGH received their vaccines on Saturday, shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the nationwide vaccination drive. Of the 94, 52 received Covaxin including the Dean of Madras Medical College, Dr E Theranirajan, and the Vice Chancellor of Dr MGR Medical University, Dr Sudha Seshayyan. Over the next few weeks, RGGGH will administer the vaccines to at least 6,700 healthcare workers. 

Knowing that people need not suffer like they had to before was enough motivation for 30-year-old Thiyagaraj to sign up to receive the vaccine. An orthopaedic doctor at RGGGH, he has also been on COVID duty at the hospital since March 2020, which has taken him away from practicing his chosen specialty. “At least now, we can hope to get back to gaining knowledge and experience in our specialty. It feels surreal to have a vaccine finally. People have gone through hell with this disease, more so because it is new for everyone,” he said.


Dr Thiyagaraj, RGGGH, Chennai

Like Priyanka, he also voluntarily chose to get Covaxin because of ethical reasons. “I chose Covaxin because it is indigenous and will have better availability in the coming days. We don't know how much of the imported vaccine we will get. This has better chances in the market and it felt right to participate in testing this vaccine,” he said. 

At RGGGH, volunteers were given an option to choose between Covishield or Covaxin. Those who chose to receive Covaxin were asked to sign an informed consent form, which disclosed that the phase 3 trial for the vaccine is underway. Those who get inoculated were also made to sit in a separate waiting hall for 30 minutes to observe any immediate adverse reaction. All those who get the first shot will be called to the hospital after four weeks to get the second shot of the same vaccine. 

On the first day of the vaccine drive, only doctors and students of Madras Medical college were called for inoculation. A 19-year-old MBBS student said that he chose to get Covishield due to concerns around Covaxin, and the fact that it is still in phase 3 trials. “Once the vaccines become available in large scale to the public, it will definitely help a lot of people to get back to their lives. COVID-19 threw normal lives out of gear. Many have lost their livelihood. Hopefully the vaccines should help them all to get back to living their lives and pick up the pieces,” he said. Adding that he is elated about the vaccine, the student said, “All we have seen around us since March are grim scenes of people suffering and even dying. Hopefully this [vaccines] will work.”

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