National-level panel discusses 8 AEFI cases, finds no deaths due to COVID-19 vaccination: Health Ministry

New Delhi [India], February 9 (ANI): 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, according to the Union Health Ministry 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 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."
Bhushan said 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 February 13. 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 Feb 20. Timelines are communicated to states," he added. (ANI)