Govt: 18 out of 60 adverse events related to vaccine

These cases, which are of serious and severe side effects, pertain to those randomly selected between January 16, 2021 and March 19, 2021.

Union health ministry’s latest analysis of 60 cases of adverse events following immunization shows that 18 of these were related to the vaccines, the government said in a report, which added that the only case that was of a fatality was not connected to the vaccines.

A health worker administers a vaccine for COVID-19 to a boatman on an island in the River Yamuna in New Delhi. (AP Photo)

These cases, which are of serious and severe side effects, pertain to those randomly selected between January 16, 2021 and March 19, 2021; and by March 19, A total of nearly 41 million (4,11,55,978) vaccine doses were administered in the country.

All other severe and serious adverse reaction cases recovered, according to the report, which said that the fatality was coincidental – such cases are when a cause of death other than the vaccine is established upon investigation. Most of the side effects, the report added, were related to anxiety following vaccination – which does not directly implicate the product.

“55 out of 60 cases for which Causality assessment has been done found to have consistent causal association to vaccination, Of these, 36 were anxiety related reactions and 18 were vaccine product related reactions and one was classified as both -- vaccine product related and anxiety related reaction. Five cases have been found to have inconsistent causal association to vaccination (coincidental - not linked to vaccination) of which one was a death case,” said the ministry’s AEFI report.

The result of the causality assessment for these 60 cases was completed on May 27, 2021, after a thorough review, deliberation and approval by the national AEFI committee.

“The data is thoroughly analysed by experts as part of India’s AEFI surveillance system. The percentage of adverse reaction as compared to the total doses administered is minuscule, and there is absolutely no cause for concern,” said a senior central government official aware of the matter, requesting anonymity.