Govt says 6 deaths after jab have no link with shots, experts ask ICMR to probe cause
In the past eight days since the launch of the mega anti-Covid-19 drive on January 16, 15.37 lakh persons have been vaccinated till Saturday. Six have died after taking the shots, but the Government has maintained that their demise has no link with the vaccination.
Around 500 cases of AEFI have been reported. Health experts have, however, urged the Union Health Ministry and ICMR to investigate these deaths even if these were not directly linked to the vaccine against the coronavirus.
On Saturday, a 56-year-old woman who was a resident of Gurugram, succumbed after taking the jab.
“The post-mortem confirms that cardio-pulmonary disease was the reason for her death and it was not related to vaccination. None of these deaths have been causally linked with Covid-19 vaccination,” said an official from the Union Health Ministry here on Saturday.
“Is anybody investigating deaths after vaccination so as to come out with do’s and don’ts about vaccination. This is the science we need to contribute to it so that future can be safeguarded,” said Dr Rahul Bhargava, Director-Bone Marrow Transplant Programme, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram.
Another health expert from the Government hospital said most of these beneficiaries are said to have died because of the heart-related problems.
“It should be probed whether the vaccine is the reason for triggering the underlying heart disease,” he said as he pointed out that the majority of the population in India are having heart-related health issues.
In fact, the two deaths reported in the last three days, one each from Meerut and Bellary in Karnataka were attributed to the cardio-related health ailments.
The cumulative number of healthcare workers vaccinated against COVID19 has crossed 15 lakh today. A total of 15,37,190 beneficiaries (till 6 pm on Saturday) vaccinated through 27,776 sessions, as per the provisional report. 3,368 sessions were held till 6 pm.
“So far, 11 hospitalizations against vaccinations (0.0007%) have taken place. One person hospitalised in the last 24 hours in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.
“ Six have been reported so far. A 56-year-old woman has died in Gurugram in the last 24 hours. None of the deaths has been casually linked with Covid-19 vaccination,” said the Ministry.
“A training of Immunization Programme Managers of 13 foreign countries, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Maldives, Mauritius, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Seychelles & Sri Lanka, using Indian vaccines was conducted by the Ministry covering all aspects of vaccine roll-out spread over 2 days,” said the ministry.
In addition to 12 states currently using Covaxin, seven more states would be administering Covaxin from next week – Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab & West Bengal. On January 16, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India’s massive Covid-10 vaccination drive using two products - Covishield and Covaxin.
While the former was developed by researchers at Oxford University in collaboration with pharma major AstaZeneca, it is being manufactured in India by Pune-based The Serum Institute of India.
Covaxin, on the other hand, is being produced by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech which created the vaccine in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research.
In phase 1 of the inoculation drive, set to be completed by July, one crore health workers followed by 2 crore frontline workers will get the vaccine.
In the next one, besides those aged above 50, Prime Minister Modi and all Union and state ministers and lawmakers are likely to get jabbed.