A 47-year-old man who works as a security guard on weekends at the Sofitel Wentworth and Mantra at Haymarket tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday night.It is the state’s first local case in 55 days. His result will be included in Monday’s case number. The man had received a first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on March 2 and was awaiting his second jab.Contact tracers are vigorously calling the man’s colleagues in a bid to find any additional cases and prevent the possibility of a Sydney outbreak.But Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases professor at the Australian National University, said a small percentage of the vaccinated population would test positive for COVID-19 following their first and second doses of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines.But it is still better than not getting the jab at all, according to Professor Collignon.“The reason this particular individual (security guard) or any individual for that matter tested positive after a vaccination is firstly because the body takes 10 to 14 days after the jab to develop enough white cells to kill the virus,” Professor Collignon told NCA NewsWire.“You don’t get full protection after one dose, so it will not be surprising to see a small number of people get the virus after vaccination. “One dose does give a person protection, but having two doses is even better.“However, that number of vaccinated people who will contract the virus will still be lower than if they didn’t get the vaccine. The vaccine will reduce the spread and severity of the disease.“Nothing is absolute, anyway; two does of any vaccine does not make you completely impervious to the virus. But it is highly effective.”The security guard’s four household contacts returned negative results on Sunday. However, NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said contact tracers were scrambling to test more than 100 colleagues of the security guard who worked a night shift at a quarantine hotel with him on Friday night while infectious.“(He was) was infectious while doing a shift, and we have contacted around 130 people who worked from 7pm on Friday night to 7am on Saturday, overlapping that March 12 to March 13 (window),” Dr Chant said on Sunday.
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