Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : January 18, 2021 2:02 PM IST
A total of 2,24,311 beneficiaries received Covid vaccines in 553 sessions of vaccination till Sunday across the country. ©Shutterstock
As India enters the third day of the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive on Monday, reports of adverse events following immunization (AEFI) are coming up from various parts of the country. According to the Union Health Ministry, as many as 447 adverse events were reported in the first two days of the inoculation programme, including serious cases that required hospitalization.
Meanwhile, a government hospital worker reportedly died on Sunday evening in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad, 24 hours after receiving a Covid vaccine shot. According to media reports, 46-year-old ward boy Mahipal Singh died after complaining of chest congestion and breathlessness. However, Moradabad's chief medical officer MC Garg has clarified that the death is unrelated to Covid-19 vaccination.
The postmortem report has also revealed the immediate cause of death as "cardiogenic shock/septicemic shock" due to "cardio-pulmonary disease."
Singh was vaccinated on Saturday around noon and there were no problems till night as he attended his duty, the chief medical officer told reporters. On Sunday he felt breathless and complained of chest congestion, but it does not seem to be a reaction to vaccination, Garg had said late Sunday night.
Speaking to the media, the man's son Vishal said his father may have been unwell before the vaccination, but that he felt worse after receiving the shot. According to him, Singh had usual cough and cold, but he started feeling worse after returning home from the vaccination centre. He was feeling breathless and he was coughing, Vishal told media.
In a press release, the Uttar Pradesh government said that it vaccinated 22,643 people on Saturday, the first day of India's Covid Vaccination drive.
Majority of adverse events are minor: Health ministry
Earlier, news agency IANS reported that a 22-year-old security guard at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, was admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU) after he developed an allergic reaction post vaccination. The guard experienced headache, rash, respiratory distress, and tachycardia.
A healthcare worker of NDMC Charak Pallika Hospital was also hospitalised post inoculation in the hospital, the Delhi government had revealed on Saturday. The person was, however, discharged after few hours of observation.
A total of 2,24,311 beneficiaries received Covid vaccines in 553 sessions of vaccination till Sunday across the country, according to the Union Health Ministry.
The ministry also stressed that majority of the adverse event following immunisation are minor in nature such as "pain, mild swelling at injection site, mild fever, body ache, nausea, giddiness and mild allergic reactions like rashes, etc." These may or may not be related to the vaccination process, it said.
