All Covaxin recipients to be monitored for 7 days

All Covaxin recipients to be monitored for 7 days

Sunitha.Rao@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:19.01.2021

The National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (NCDIR), a Bengaluru-based branch of ICMR, has been identified as the nodal centre to monitor Covaxin’s Phase 3 clinical trials.

In a video conference last week, state governments were directed to call and monitor the health of all Covaxin recipients for seven days from the day of immunisation. A report on their condition must also be sent to NCDIR.

A site each in Chamarajanagar, Davanagere, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga and Ballari districts have been chosen to administer Covaxin. Bharat BioTech, manufacturers of the vaccine, has said the common side effects include fever and abdominal pain, body ache, nausea and vomiting. The less common adverse effects are giddiness, tremors, cold, cough, swelling around the injection site and sweating.

Dr Prashanth Mathur, director, NCDIR, said: “We are working out modalities with the state government to avoid duplication of efforts while monitoring Covaxin beneficiaries. We are planning work distribution to ensure the vaccine recipient is not burdened with multiple calls from different agencies. Covaxin beneficiaries are part of the trials.”

Dr Mathur said no beneficiary has reported side effects so far. While beneficiaries cannot choose which vaccine to receive, those willing to take Covaxin must sign a consent form. The consent form is available in local languages and content is explained to beneficiaries.

On Saturday, the first day of immunisation, 365 of the 600 targeted beneficiaries received Covaxin in the six centres in Karnataka. However, so far, none of the recipients have received follow-up calls.

The vaccination drive did not take off in some centres on Monday due to glitches with the CoWIN portal. Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS), where only Covaxin will be administered, was among them.