At least 52 healthcare workers who were administered the first jab of coronavirus vaccine in Delhi on Saturday suffered side-effects. While 51 of them showed minor reactions, one recipient suffered a severe case of Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) on the Day 1 of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, the Delhi government said.
“A few AEFI cases were reported but most were minor and the persons were normalised during observation period. Only one severe AEFI case was reported in South Delhi,” said a top government official.
The vaccine recipient who experienced severe side-effects was immediately admitted to the ICU ward at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after he developed headache, rashes, respiratory distress and tachycardia. Doctors and eye witnesses said he was given Avil and Hydrocortisone initially, but it showed no improvement. As a result, doctors decided to stabilise the reactions using adrenaline.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), any untoward medical occurrence which follows immunisation and does not necessarily have a causal relationship with the usage of the vaccine is known as AEFI.
Administration of coronavirus vaccine started in Delhi at 81 centres across the city on Saturday. Each Centre was targeted to administer vaccines to 100 people (health workers). Against a target of 8,117 health workers to be vaccinated on the first day of the drive in 11 districts of Delhi, a total of 4,319 were administered the vaccine, figures showed.
Northwest and west Delhi districts had the highest target of 1,100 vaccinations each where 706 and 487 people, respectively, were vaccinated. At the same time, in northeast Delhi, there were two vaccination centres and a total of 77 people were vaccinated against the target of 200 people, official figures showed.
Source: India.com