The national Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) committee has concluded that the Covishield vaccine does not increase the risk of blood clotting. The committee submitted its findings after analysing over 400 major adverse reactions reported post-COVID-19 vaccinations.
These cases have been analysed and there is no unusual bleeding or clotting manifestations either with Covishield or Covaxin, said Dr. NK Arora member of the National Task Force on COVID-19, and an advisor to the national AEFI committee.
Of 412 cases of severe and serious AEFI, including hospitalisations and deaths, there is no abnormal increase in issues of clotting and bleeding, he said, as per an Indian Express report.
These findings have been submitted to the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19.
The panel undertook a deeper review of serious adverse events post-vaccination after several European countries halted the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine citing fears of blood clots.
Going forward, a system is in the works to ensure a faster turnaround time between the time that a serious AEFI is reported by states and the Centre and the results of the investigations into them, Arora said.
"We are (trying to see) that, within two or three weeks, the results should be available for each AEFI. It will be almost real-time," Dr. Arora told the newspaper.
Over a dozen countries, including Netherlands, Thailand, Norway, Denmark, Ireland, Iceland, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia had suspended the use of Covishield over safety concerns.
The World Health Organization (WHO), however, said that there was no reason to stop using the jab. The WHO stressed that no causal link has been established between the AstraZeneca vaccine and clotting.
Meanwhile, a large trial in the US and two South American countries of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine demonstrated a 79 percent efficacy rate at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and 100 percent effectiveness in stopping severe disease and hospitalisation, the firm said on March 22.
The company said the panel found “no increased risk of thrombosis or events characterised by thrombosis among the 21,583 participants receiving at least one dose of the vaccine. The specific search for cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), which is an extremely rare blood clot in the brain, found no events in this trial.”
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