4 vaccine product-related deaths reported after administration of 123.25 Cr doses: Centre

Only 4 vaccine product-related deaths were reported as of November 30 when 123.25 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered, the Centre informed Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. Union MoS Health Dr Bharati Pawar was responding to an unstarred question by CPI(M) MP K Somaprasad wherein he asked about the side effects of the vaccines permitted in India. While a total of 49,819 Adverse Events Following Immunization have been detected, this accounts for merely 0.0004% of the administered doses. 

Dr Bharati Pawar explained, "Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) is any untoward medical occurrence which follows immunization and which does not necessarily have a causal relationship with the vaccine and are reported through the AEFI surveillance system. Investigations and causality assessment help in establishing a cause and effect relationship". Out of these adverse events, 1965 were serious.

"Total deaths and hospitalizations following use of all three COVID 19 vaccines were 946 (0.00008%) and 1019 (0.00008%) respectively. The causality assessment of 89 deaths have been completed. The number of deaths classified under different causality assessment categories are vaccine product related- 4, coincidental- 58, indeterminate- 16 and unclassifiable-11," she added. 

COVID-19 vaccination in India

At present, there are 95,014 active novel coronavirus cases in India whereas 3,40,79,612 patients have recovered and 4,73,757 deaths have been reported. The improvement in India's COVID-19 situation has been attributed to the rapid progress in vaccination. The country's vaccine drive against COVID-19 commenced on 16 January with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase. This was opened up to frontline workers on 2 February while those aged above 60 and above 45 with co-morbidities became eligible for vaccination from 1 March.

While everyone aged above 45 could get vaccinated from 1 April, all adults were added to the vaccination coverage category on 1 May. In a huge achievement, India completed administering one crore novel coronavirus vaccine doses on October 21. Apart from Covishield and Covaxin, the Drugs Controller General of India has approved Sputnik V, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccine, and Zydus Cadila's ZyCoV-D.

As per sources, nearly 85% of India's eligible adult population has been administered at least one dose of the vaccine while over 50% have got jabbed twice. Uttar Pradesh leads in the number of doses administered in India followed by Maharashtra, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. A total of 80,66,91,890 persons have been inoculated whereas 48,91,27,393 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too.