NEW DELHI, Mar 17: The Centre on Wednesday said the adverse effects surveillance group is aware of the concerns raised by many countries over AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines and is tracking the information available on the events. VK Paul member (health) in Niti Aayog, however, said, “I assure you that we have no signal of concern in this regard.”
The vaccine against Covid-19 developed by Oxford University is being produced by AstraZeneca in Europe and Serum Institute of India in India.
“Therefore, our programme with Covishield implementation, vaccination will go on with full rigour, but at the same time, we are mindful of the fact to address this concern as an ongoing activity based on the data available to us as well as we are watching the information being made available from other sources. But as of today, there is no concern at all with regard to Covishield,” Paul added.
Noting the reports on AstraZeneca’s vaccine relationship with thrombotic events in people who received the shot, Paul pointed out that while ten countries have paused the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccination programme, the European Medical Agency (EMA) has said it was just a precautionary measure and there was no data to believe, as of now, a causal relationship and part of the assessment was still being done.
He also cited the World Health Organisation (WHO) that has said the investigation, precaution in the matter should go on but vaccination programme, scale-up and implementation should not be suspended.
Reports about adverse effects like blood clotting after receiving AstraZeneca vaccine came to light recently, as a result of which countries like Denmark and Norway paused the vaccine as a precautionary measure. Other EU members like Germany, France and Italy also followed the suit and suspended the use of the vaccine.
Along with the WHO and EMA, the UK has also said the AstraZeneca shots are safe and there is no link between the vaccines and blood clots.
The EMA has said it was investigating 30 cases of blood disorders out of five million recipients of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
Its manufacturer AstraZeneca in a statement last week had stated, “A careful review of all available safety data of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union (EU) and the UK with Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country.”
(Manas Dasgupta)
