Indian Authorities Find Cases Of Blood Clotting Of AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vacccine Recipients

JAKARTA - Indian health authorities announced the discovery of 26 cases of suspected bleeding and clotting among the recipients of the AstraZeneca vaccine, although the number is relatively small out of the 164 million doses given, Monday 17 May.

This is the first time India has reported a serious reaction to the use of the vaccine, which is branded locally as Covishield.

Cited from Reuters on Tuesday, May 18 India's Side Effects Committee reviewed 498 incidents of serious and severe side effects following the administration of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

"Of these, 26 of them have the potential to be 'thromboembolic', which means the formation of clots in a blood vessel that may break off and clog others", said the Indian Ministry of Health.

Furthermore, the Indian Ministry of Health explained that the incidence rate in India was 0.61 percent per million doses. This figure is much lower than in the UK where it was 4 per million cases, while in Germany it was 10 per million cases.

"The cases of bleeding and freezing after COVID-19 vaccination in India are very small and fit the number of expected diagnoses of this condition", the ministry said in a statement citing data from the committee.

"The vaccine continues to have a definite positive risk profile of benefit, with tremendous potential to prevent infection and reduce deaths from COVID-19", the ministry continued, without elaborating on the nature of the clots caused.

It is known, a number of countries in the world have decided to suspend or limit the use of the COVID-19 vaccine alerted by AstraZeneca, due to fears of side effects. Although, experts say the benefits of this vaccine still outweigh the side effects.

Meanwhile, the related committee has not found any freezing-related reactions after the use of the domestically developed Covaxin vaccine. India is known to have given nearly 19 million of its residents the COVID-19 Covaxin vaccine.