Covid vaccine: 22 suffer side-effects in Bengaluru West Zone

BENGALURU: In all, 22 adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) were reported after beneficiaries took the Covid vaccine in BBMP West Zone on Thursday. This is the highest number of AEFIs reported from any zone, or all zones put together in Bengaluru, till date.Manoranjan Hegde, health officer, West Zone, said, “Minor AEFIs including giddiness, fever, chills, pain at the site of injection were reported. The beneficiaries did not require hospitalisation, and only needed observation. Medicines were given to those with fever and chills but not to those with giddiness.”

The only other zone in the capital with AEFI was South Zone, with one case of a woman sufferning from dizziness for a few seconds.Shivakumar, health officer, South Zone, said, “This is not really an AEFI and may have happened due to pain or anxiety. She was fine after a few seconds and did not need medicines.”

Totally, 52 per cent of the targeted beneficiaries were given the vaccine in the city on Thursday — 1,027 from the government and 4,282 from the private sector — until 8.30 pm. Usually, the drive is only till 5 pm but was extended for the first time on Thursday. Of the 32,773 targeted people, 17,190 could get the jab. Haveri, Uttara Kannada and Yadgir had zero targets and zero achievement.

The best performing districts were Mandya (82%), Chikkaballapur (78%), Dharwad (75%), Hassan (74%) and Chikkamagaluru (72%).The cumulative coverage from January 16 to January 21 has been 57 per cent. No major AEFI cases were reported across the state, according to the government.