A 52-year old health worker in Jharkhand died 36 hours after he received a coronavirus vaccine shot. The investigation on what caused the death and if it was linked to the vaccine or not is still being done. The health worker Mannu Pahan, who received a shot of Serum Institute's Covishield vaccine, did not have any comorbidities.

This is the 16th death reported among vaccine recipients in India so far. Incidentally, all deaths have been reported among beneficiaries who received Covishield. All adverse events reported, including 106 reported on Feb 2nd, none have been reported to be linked to the vaccine so far.

The government in a written reply in Rajya Sabha has said "the drug regulator Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) hasn't received information about any specific severe adverse event causally linked to the administration of COVID-19 vaccines."

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All death being reported in Covishield could be explained from the fact that majority of the 42 lakh persons vaccinated so far have received Serum Institute’s vaccine. Hence, majority adverse events and deaths reported in that bracket. The offtake of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin has been slow so far.

However, the details of deaths need more focus --- Deaths have been reported within few hours to 10 days post vaccination and few among those who had no co-morbidities.

Six deaths reported each in 40-50 years age bracket and 50-60 years age bracket. Importantly, two deaths reported in people under 30 years of age.

A 23-year-old security guard at Odisha’s Nuapada District Headquarters Hospital who died three days after being administered the COVID-19 vaccine, was the youngest. He too did not have any co-morbidties.

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Cardiovascular complications, particularly Myocardial Infarction and brain stroke has been most common reported causes of death. While the local adverse event reporting teams or state health officials in all the 15 cases, except Pahan, have said the deaths are not related to the vaccine itself,

reports of the investigations have yet not been made public.

"A total of 151 health workers including Pahan were vaccinated at Medanta Hospital on February 1. Nine others who received the vaccine from the same vial are all fine," reports quote Dr Ajit Prasad, nodal officer for the COVID-19 vaccination programme in Jharkhand as saying.

Cardiovascular complications, Myocardial Infarction in particular and brain stroke has been most common causes of death.

While the local adverse event reporting teams have said none of these deaths are related to the vaccine itself , more clarity and investigation is awaited.

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Dr Gagandeep Kang, noted scientist and professor at CMC Vellore, said, "We cannot make a ‘not related’ assessment immediately. Need to assess if there is a pattern amongst these deaths. Most likely the deaths may not be related to the vaccine, however depth and quality of collated data will give a more conclusive evidence of causal links if any."

Experts say reports of district, state and national AEFI Committees' on how causal links were assessed in these deaths and details of investigating officers need to be made public.

In a letter to the union health minister last week, public health experts have highlighted that these deaths fall into the category of a "cluster" of serious adverse events as defined by the WHO and need a more thorough investigation to rule out patterns if any.

WHO's definition of a 'cluster' of serious AEFIs as given in its COVID-19 vaccines: safety surveillance manual — 'when two or more AEFIs related in time, place or by vaccine occur', the letter quoted.

(Edited by : Jomy)

First Published:Feb 3, 2021 10:47 PM IST