The first meeting of the national-level AEFI (Adverse Event Following Immunisation) committee discussed eight AEFI cases and found that no deaths had occurred due to Covid-19 vaccination, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
The first meeting of national-level AEFI committee was held on 5 February to investigate the reasons for AEFI post-vaccination. Addressing a press conference here, Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Health Ministry said that the committee found that no deaths were related to vaccination.
“A meeting of National AEFI Committee was held on February 5, 2021. They discussed eight AEFI cases. Causality assessment of 5 cases, 2 deaths and 3 hospitalized cases, conducted. In hospitalised cases, all 3 recovered completely and discharged. Two cases were diagnosed as anaphylaxis and they classified as vaccine-product related reaction (known and expected reactions following vaccinations). One case was diagnosed as syncope and classified as immunisation triggered stress response (anxiety reaction). They found that no deaths were related to vaccination,” Bhushan said.
Bhushan said that assessment of the cause of three death cases has been deferred as “Histopathology and chemical analysis report called for and the state government will give them the report after which and they will make a decision”.
The Health Secretary said that the ministry is making a standard template and “will put the information in the public domain proactively”. He informed that so far 63,10,194 beneficiaries including healthcare and frontline workers have been vaccinated with the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine as of now.
“Administration of the second dose of vaccine will begin on 13 February. We cannot indefinitely keep on scheduling and rescheduling healthcare workers. States/UTs have been advised that all healthcare workers must be scheduled at least once for vaccination by 20 February. Timelines are communicated to states,” he added.
The ministry also said that as many as 33 states and UTs in the country have less than 5,000 active Covid-19 cases, adding that only two states—Maharashtra and Kerala—have more than 35,000 active cases.
“Only 2 States—Kerala and Maharashtra—have more than 35,000 active Covid-19 cases and together they contribute to 71 per cent of Covid-19 cases. Kerala has 65,670 active Covid-19 cases and Maharashtra has 35,991 active Covid-19 cases. Currently, 33 states and UTs in the country have less than 5,000 active Covid-19 cases,” Bhushan said.
“Active cases are only 3.12 per cent of the total cases. Active cases are less than 1.50 lakh and declining. There are 15 states and Union Territories (UT) that have not reported deaths in the last 24 hours. There are seven states and UTs that have not reported deaths in the last three weeks. A total of 55 per cent decline in average daily Covid-19 deaths have been reported in the last five weeks,” he said.
The Health Ministry also informed that 97% of the people who gave their feedback after receiving Covid-19 vaccine dose are satisfied with the overall experience.
Bhushan said the process of taking feedback started from January 17, 2021. “Personalized SMS were sent to all beneficiaries a day after vaccination. SMS contains the name of person, dose (first/ second), and a URL for feedback. Once the user confirmed for vaccination against his/ her name, five questions were asked to which they gave responses,” Bhushan said.
“A total of 97 per cent people are satisfied with the overall vaccination experience. It is maintained by Conducted by NeGD (National E-Governance Division). The data is based on the feedback response of 7,75,000 people,” he added.
Dr V.K. Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, said they can confidently say that the strategy to implement vaccination programme and “the experience of vaccination is now consistently, very highly rated by people”.
