First death following COVID-19 vaccination confirmed by Govt panel

On Tuesday, June 15, a government panel studying the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine has confirmed the first death following inoculation.

According to the National Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) committee report, a 68-year-old died due to anaphylaxis, an allergic reaction, after receiving his vaccine shot on March 8, 2021. The deceased had taken Covishield.

The death is reported as a "vaccine product-related reaction" in the report.

The government panel report shows that three anaphylaxis cases were found to be vaccine product related so far. However, in two other cases (ages 21 and 22) the vaccine was administered on January 16 and 19 and both of them recovered after being hospitalised. 

Meanwhile, two adverse events following Covaxin were hospitalizations — one 22-year-old man had anaphylaxis and another 26-year-old man had a syncope (temporary loss of consciousness).

The results of the causality assessment of 31 cases were approved by the National AEFI Committee on February 5 (five cases), March 9 (eight cases) and March 31, 2021 (18 cases) after thorough review and deliberations. 

According to the report, of the 31 causally assessed cases, 18 were classified as having an inconsistent causal association to vaccination (coincidental - not linked to vaccination), seven were classified as indeterminate, three cases were found to be vaccine product related, one was anxiety-related reaction and two cases were found to be unclassifiable. 

The AEFI Committee concluded that the syncope was an “immunisation anxiety-related reaction”. The ministry said the number of deaths reported following Covid-19 vaccination in the country is only 0.0002 per cent of 23.5 crore doses administered, which is within the expected death rates in a population.

AEFI is defined as “any untoward medical occurrence which follows immunization and which does not necessarily have a causal relationship with the usage of the vaccine. It can be any unfavourable or unintended sign, abnormal laboratory finding, symptom or disease”.