Miniscule bleeding, clotting events post Covid-19 vaccination in India: Govt

India has reported 26 potential cases of bleeding and clotting after administration of Covishield vaccine a government panel investigating adverse events following Covid19 immunisation has foundThe Union Health Ministry said in a statement on Monday that over 23000 adverse events have been reported since the vaccination drive involving Covishield and Covaxin vaccines started in the country and of these 700 cases were reported to be seriousThe National Adverse Event Following Immunisation committee AEFI has completed an indepth case review of 498 serious and severe events of which 26 cases have been reported to be potential thromboembolic formation of a clot in a blood vessel that might also break loose and carried by the blood stream to plug another vessel events ndash following administration of Covishield vaccine ndash with a reporting rate of 061 cases million dosesThere were no potential thromboembolic events reported following administration of Covaxin vaccine the ministry saidAs alerts were raised in some countries on postvaccination ldquoembolic and thrombotic eventsrdquo on March 11 particularly with AstraZenecaOxford vaccine Covishield a decision was taken to conduct an urgent indepth analysis of the adverse events AE in India in the light of global concerns the ministry saidThe National AEFI committee noted that as of April 3 75435381 vaccine doses had been administered Covishield ndash 68650819 Covaxin ndash 6784562Of these 65944106 were first doses and 9491275 second dose Since the Covid19 vaccination drive was initiated ndash more than 23000 adverse events were reported through the COWIN platform reported from 684 of the 753 districts of the countryOf these only 700 cases 93 cases million doses administered were reported to be serious and severe in nature the statement saidThe AEFI data in India showed that there is a very miniscule but definitive risk of thromboembolic events The reporting rate of these events in India is around 061million doses which is much lower than the 4 casesmillion reported by UKs regulator Medical and Health Regulatory Authority MHRA Germany has reported 10 events per million doses the statement statedThromboembolic events keep occurring in general population as background and scientific literature suggests that this risk is almost 70 per cent less in persons of South and South East Asian descent in comparison to those from European descentThe ministry is separately issuing advisories to healthcare workers and vaccine beneficiaries to encourage people to be aware of suspected thromboembolic symptoms occurring within 20 days after receiving any Covid19 vaccine particularly Covishield and report preferably to the health facility where vaccine was administeredThe symptoms listed are breathlessness pain in chest pain in limbspain on pressing limbs or swelling in limbs arm or calf multiple pinhead size red spots or bruising of skin in an area beyond the injection site persistent abdominal pain with or without vomiting seizures in the absence of previous history of seizures with or without vomiting severe and persistent headache with or without vomiting in the absence of previous history of migraine or chronic headacheThe symptoms also include weakness or paralysis of limbs or any particular side or part of the body including face persistent vomiting without any obvious reason blurred vision or pain in eyes or having double vision change in mental status or having confusion or depressed level of consciousness or any other symptom or health condition which is of concern to the recipient or the familyThe ministry said that Covishield continues to have a definite positive benefit risk profile with tremendous potential to prevent infections and reduce deaths due to Covid19 across the world and in IndiaOver 134 crore doses of Covishield vaccine have been administered as on 27 April in IndiaThe ministry is continuously monitoring the safety of all Covid19 vaccines and is promoting reporting of suspected adverse eventsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever