As India entered the fourth day of covid-19 vaccination on Tuesday, the vaccine uptake remained low across states. Major vaccine hesitancy prevailed in states such as Punjab with only 27.9% beneficiaries turning up for vaccines followed by Puducherry with 34.6% and Tamil Nadu with only 34.9% healthcare workers and frontline workers opting for covid-19 vaccines.
The better performing states according to the union health ministry were in terms of vaccination coverage are Lakshadweep (89.3%) followed by Sikkim (85.7%) and Odisha (82.6%). India has granted emergency use authorisation (EUA) to two covid-19 vaccines -- Pune-based Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Ltd’s Covaxin which are being used in the government’s vaccination drive.
“Vaccine hesitancy is there in the whole world for various vaccines. Anxiety is normal but the data of the vaccines that have been approved in India have shown that these are safe. If healthcare and frontline workers are given an opportunity to take the vaccines, they should not refuse. After taking these vaccines, these people can be safe and keep others safe,” said Dr V K Paul, Member (health) NITI Aayog, government’s policy think tank.
A total of 6,31,417 healthcare workers have been vaccinated against covid-19 has so far through 11,660 sessions, as per the provisional report. A total of 3,800 sessions were held on Tuesday and over 1,77,368 beneficiaries were vaccinated. At least nine cases of Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) have required hospitalization. In Delhi, three cases have been discharged whereas one case is under observation at Rajiv Gandhi, Hospital Shahdara, the government said.
One more AEFI case from Uttarakhand has been discharged. In Karnataka, one person is discharged and other person is stable and under observation at District Hospital, Chitradurga. In Chhattisgarh also, one person is discharged. In Rajasthan, one case is of suspected anaphylaxis is fine and under observation at District Hospital, Bangar, according to Union Health Ministry. “These vaccines are safe don’t elicit and undue complications. The AEFI has been 0.18% and the hospitalization due to this has been 0.002%,” said Paul.
The government also said that in case of any AEFI, the authorities will compensate the expenditure incurred on the treatment. “One vaccine has been given emergency use authorization (Covishield) and another vaccine which has been given emergency use authorization under clinical trial mode (Covaxin), the one which has been given emergency use authorization under clinical trial mode is accompanied by three documents, one document is the fact sheet which is read out and explained to the beneficiary,” said Rajesh Bhushan, secretary, ministry of health and family welfare.
“Second is a consent form which is again read out and explained to the beneficiary.
It is in regional languages depending on the state where it is being administered. And the third is a adverse event reporting form, where the recipient has to report the adverse event for the first seven days, and there it is clearly mentioned that, if there is a causal relationship between immunization and that was event, whether it is severe or serious. The hospitalization costs would be borne by the authorities,” he said.
The health secretary also said that which vaccine will go to which vaccination session has been decided by the states and not the centre.
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