E-Paper
No concern regarding AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, says govt
Reports about adverse effects like blood clotting after receiving AstraZeneca vaccine came to light recently, as a result of which countries like Denmark and Norway paused the vaccine as a precautionary measure.
The Centre on Wednesday said that the adverse effects surveillance group is aware of the concerns raised by many countries over AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines and is tracking the information available on the events. Assuring that there is nothing to be concerned about, Dr VK Paul member (health) in Niti Aayog said, "I assure you that we have no signal of concern in this regard."
The vaccine against Covid-19 developed by Oxford University is being produced by AstraZeneca in Europe and Serum Institute of India in India.
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"Therefore, our programme with Covishield implementation, vaccination will go on with full rigour, but at the same time, we are mindful of the fact to address this concern as an ongoing activity based on the data available to us as well as we are watching the information being made available from other sources. But as of today, there is no concern at all with regard to Covishield," Paul added.
Noting the reports on AstraZeneca's vaccine relationship with thrombotic events in people who received the shot, Paul, during the health ministry's press conference, said while ten countries have paused the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccination programme, the European medical agency (EMA) has said it is just a precautionary measure and there is no data to believe, as of now, a causal relationship and part of the assessment is still being done.
He also cited the World Health Organisation (WHO) that has said the investigation, precaution in the matter should go on but vaccination programme, scale-up and implementation should not be suspended.
Reports about adverse effects like blood clotting after receiving AstraZeneca vaccine came to light recently, as a result of which countries like Denmark and Norway paused the vaccine as a precautionary measure. Other EU members like Germany, France and Italy also followed the suit and suspended the use of the vaccine.
Along with the WHO and EMA, the UK has also said the AstraZeneca shots are safe and there is no link between the vaccines and blood clots.
The EMA has said that it is investigating 30 cases of blood disorders out of 5 million recipients of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, reported Reuters.
"A careful review of all available safety data of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union (EU) and the UK with Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country," AstraZeneca said last week on the issue.
