Covid vaccines 97% effective in preventing deaths: Tracker data

Covid vaccines 97% effective in preventing deaths: Tracker data

Also Helps To Monitor Reinfection & Breakthrough Infection After Vax

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:10.09.2021

Anti-Covid vaccines available in India are around 97% effective in preventing mortality, whereas vaccination significantly reduces hospitalisation, the assessment of real time vaccination data captured by the ‘Covid Vaccine Tracker’ has revealed. The soon-to-belaunched tracker also provides data for the government to monitor reinfection and breakthrough infection after vaccination, officials said.

Analysis of data shows that a single dose of Covid vaccine is 96.6% effective in preventing death, whereas two shots provide a 97.5% shield, ICMR director Balram Bhargava said. The data is for the April-August period and does not distinguish between the different Covid vaccines currently being administered in the country, he added.

“The vaccines are diseasemodifying in that they prevent serious disease and death. They are not diseasepreventing. So, breakthrough infections will occur even after the vaccination and that is why we keep on recommending that even after vaccination one must continue to use mask and adhere to Covid-appropriate behaviour,” Bhargava said.

The tracker combines data from CoWIN, the national Covid-19 testing database and the Covid-19 India portal of the health ministry to understand trends in vaccinations. “The data so far has shown the same effectiveness across all age groups in preventing mortality,” Bhargava said.

Meanwhile, the causality assessment details of 88 reported serious adverse events following Covid immunisation shows 61 have consistent causal association to vaccination. Of these 61 cases, 37 were vaccine product related reactions, whereas 22 were immunization anxiety related reactions. Two cases were immunization error related reactions.

Apart from these 61 cases, another 18 have inconsistent causal association to vaccination (coincidental — not linked to vaccination) including three death cases. The remaining nine cases (of the 88) were in the “indeterminate category” including two death cases, says the AEFI report, approved by its national committee on June 28.

Currently, Serum Institute of India’s Covishield constitutes majority of the doses administered in the country, followed by Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin that is gradually increasing supplies. Russia’s Sputnik V is also being administered.