Covid vaccine: Chandigarh readies to watch, deal with side-effects

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 26

Ahead of the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out, the UT Health Department has formed an adverse event following immunisation (AEFI) committee comprising doctors from the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, and the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGI) to deal with side-effects following immunisation.

The AEFI is defined as any an untoward medical occurrence, which follows immunisation and does not necessarily have a causal relationship with the usage of the vaccine. The Centre had asked the UT to start making arrangements to deal with any Covid vaccine-related side-effects as one of the measures towards the safe vaccine delivery among masses.

Dr Amandeep Kaur Kang, Director, Health Services, UT, said, “Under the universal immunisation programme, an AEFI system already existed but it was targeted to children only. Since this is an adult vaccine, we have reconstituted the committee by involving doctors from cardiology, neurology, medicine, and anaesthesia. Vaccinators have already been trained to identify signs of the AEFI and deal with common occurrences.”

Dr Kang added, “A 30-minute on-site monitoring of people, who will be vaccinated, will be mandatory post-vaccination. Besides, we will have 24X7 Covid vaccine help desk functioning to cater to the beneficiaries.”

All beneficiaries will be counselled about adverse events, which may occur after administration of the Covid-19 vaccine. “These are expected to be minor events such as local pain and swelling, and mild to moderate fever, etc. However, the list of expected events could be different, based on the safety profile of the Covid-19 vaccine(s) that finally get(s) approved for use,” a document released by the Centre stated.

All adverse events will be reported through the Co-Win application developed to monitor and manage the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

The UT Health Department has consolidated data of health care workers as per which over 12,000 HCWs will be inoculated against Covid-19. Among the front line workers, there are over 7,000 police personnel and 6,000 workers of the Municipal Corporation.