At least 700 severe and serious adverse events have been reported from across the country post-Covid vaccination since nationwide inoculation drive began on January 16. The cases are under scanner in India in the wake of the global concerns over rare or unusual types of blood clots after administration of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University shots.
Meanwhile, India reported over 1.44 lakh cases in 24 hours on Friday, while the 773 people died of Covid-19.
Sources in the Union Health Ministry said the national committee on adverse events following immunsation (AEFI) is closely monitoring the cases and relooking at some of the unusual technical parameters following reports by the European regulator and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The result of the analysis is likely to be finalised by the end of this week, said the sources.
They said the review is significant as globally regulators are waiting for India’s data because of a large number of doses of Covid vaccine being administered here. At over 83 million, AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine accounts for 90 per cent of the doses administered in India so far. The remaining 8.1 million doses are of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
“Besides, we also have a large-scale AEFI monitoring and assessment mechanism already in place for the universal child immunisation programme,” he added.
On Wednesday, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) confirmed that the cases of blood clots with low blood platelets were associated with the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but should still be listed as very rare side effects.
In fact, till March 29 when over 6 crore people were inoculated, nearly, 180 people died after getting the vaccine while 617 adverse events have been reported in India. This means that 29.2 per cent of these AEFI cases resulted in deaths. However, not a single case has been attributed to deaths due to the vaccine.
Instead, the Ministry has found that most of the persons who succumbed to their illness had co-morbidities.
Till now this blood clotting issue was not being investigated by Indian officials. In fact, out of the 617 instances of severe and serious AEFI, 492 have so far been classified on the basis of their severity, by the AEFI Secretariat of the Immunisation Technical Support Unit at the Union Health Ministry. Similarly, 124 of the 180 deaths have so far been classified for their cause.
Of these 124 deaths, more than 63 (nearly 51 per cent) have been categorised as being caused due to acute coronary syndrome (a range of conditions associated with sudden, reduced blood flow to the heart), or heart attacks. Another 11 deaths (12 percent) are due to strokes.
But now possible links of blood clotting and vaccination, if any will be closely investigated, said the sources.