A healthcare worker in Gurgaon who was administered Covishield, the indigenous coronavirus vaccine developed by Serum institute last Saturday, reportedly died on Friday, 22 January, reported NDTV.
Her body has been sent for an autopsy, and the cause of death is not known yet.
As per her family, when 56-year-old Rajwanti did not wake up in the morning, she was rushed to Medanta hospital in Gurgaon where she was declared bought dead.
Her family also told NDTV that she did not complain of having any reaction the day she was given the vaccine.
Gurgaon's Chief Medical Officer Dr Virendra Yadav told NDTV that the cause of Rajwanti’s death will only be known after the post-mortem report is out. Till then, it would not be right to comment if she died due to the vaccine, he was quoted as saying.
India’s Attempt to Fight COVID-19
In its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, India started its vaccination programme on Saturday, 16 January with two locally made vaccines, Covaxin and Covishield. Since then more than 10 lakh people have been vaccinated in the country.
The vaccination programe aims at inoculating close to 3 crore doctors, healthcare workers and other frontline workers. They will be followed by 27 crore people who are above the age of 50 and are at high risk due to some serious medical condition.
Though many adverse reactions have been recorded in the country after the vaccine administration begun, no deaths in this regard have been reported so far.
Since many healthcare workers including other people have shown hesitancy towards getting the vaccine shot, the government in a statement said that both the vaccines are safe.
Since efficacy of Covaxin is yet to be declared and its Phase 3 trials are still underway, healthcare and frontline workers have requested the authorities to let them choose which vaccine they want to administer.
India’s Vaccination Figures So Far
Spread over 24,397 sessions, the number of vaccinated healthcare workers across the country has surpassed 12.7 lakh.
(With inputs from NDTV & ANI)
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