- Sotik Biswas
- BBC correspondent in India
An Indian health ministry official said a man had received more than eight doses of coronavirus vaccines over the past year.
Brahmidu Mandal, who is 65, says he received 11 doses of Corona vaccines in Bihar.
The man, who retired from his postal job, said the doses helped him get rid of aches and headaches, and to keep him “in good health”. He added that he did not suffer from any side effects.
An investigation is underway to find out how Mandal managed to receive so many doses.
“We did find evidence that he was given eight doses from four places,” Amarendra Pratap Shahi, a civil surgeon in Madhepura district, told the BBC.
Since the vaccination campaign began in India on the sixteenth of January last year, New Delhi has approved two types of homemade vaccines, namely Kovishield and Kovacin. There is a period of 12-16 weeks between two doses of the CoviShield vaccine, and between four to six weeks for the Covaccin vaccine.
There are more than 90,000 vaccination centres, most of which are affiliated with the government, across India, where vaccination is voluntary.
In these centers, any person receives the vaccination without the requirement to register his name through the Ministry of Health websites in advance, and the beneficiary must show an identity card – such as a driver’s license or a ballot card – in order to register his name and receive the vaccine.
The recipients’ data is then uploaded to a vaccination site in India called Ko Win.
Preliminary investigations found that Mr. Mandal succeeded in obtaining “two doses at half an hour intervals” on the same day, both of which were “recorded on the site”.
Dr. Shahi said: “We are amazed that this happened, there seems to be an error in the site. We are also trying to see if there is any neglect from those in charge of the vaccination centres.”
“The only way for this to happen is to get the vaccination data out of the vaccination centers following a long period of slowing down the site,” public health expert Chandrakant Laharia told the BBC.
“But I still wonder how Mandal’s intake of so many doses over a long period of time was not discovered,” he added.
picture released, Getty Images
65 percent of the adult population of India received both doses of the vaccine
Mr. Mandal, who records when and where he received the vaccine in his own handwriting, claims to have received 11 doses between February and December.
Mandal told the BBC he had traveled to vaccination centers across Madhepura, and at least to two neighboring districts, in order to receive the vaccine. The use of different identity cards to register in the vaccination centers.
Mr. Mandal said he had been “practicing medicine” in his village before he started working as a postman and “knew things regarding diseases”.
He added, “After I received the doses, the pain and headache went away. I had pain in my knee and used a cane to move around, now I don’t use it anymore, I’m in good shape.”
Side effects of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine include fever, headache, fatigue and pain, and their strength ranges from mild to moderate. Severe allergic symptoms are rare.
“Most likely you will feel these symptoms following the first and second doses,” says Dr. Laharia. “Many of these doses are fairly harmless, because the antibodies have been formed, and the vaccines are made of harmless ingredients.”
65 percent of the adult population of India received the vaccine, and 91 percent received at least one dose.
In Bihar, the numbers are even lower, with 36 percent receiving two doses of the vaccine, while 49 percent received at least one dose.