A 46- year-old ward boy died on Sunday evening, 24 hours after he received the first dose of the Covishield vaccine in UP's Moradabad district. The Chief Medical Officer of the district as well as the Uttar Pradesh government have denied that his death was related to the vaccine and that the postmortem revealed that he suffered a cardiogenic shock/septicemic shock due to a pre-existing cardio-pulmonary disease.
BOOM contacted Dr. M. C. Garg, Chief Medical Officer of Moradabad district who stated that Mahipal Singh, the deceased was also on duty after receiving the vaccine shot on Saturday. When asked if he was exhibiting any symptoms of ill-health before receiving the shot, Dr. Garg clarified that he did not show any symptoms.
"He was performing all his duties in the hospital and did not complain of or exhibit any symptoms of illness either prior to the vaccine or post the vaccine," Dr. Garg stated. Mahipal's son Vishal, however, told NDTV that his father was unwell before he received the vaccine jab.
Whether Singh was sick or not raises questions on whether all the vaccination sites are following the guidelines prescribed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. A day before the vaccine roll-out, the ministry shared a document stating that if any of the beneficiaries exhibited any symptoms of illness, their vaccine shot will be deferred for 4-8 weeks. If he was unwell, it also raises questions whether the recipients were pre-screened to check if they were fit to receive the vaccine.
BOOM reported about the vaccination drive on Saturday from Bhopal, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Varanasi wherein there were reports that the pre-screening process was not being conducted before the vaccine was being administered to the beneficiaries.
As the government claims that Singh's death is not due to the vaccine, the death will not be considered as a serious adverse event. So far, over 447 adverse events including five hopsitalisations have been reported across the country. One person was hospitalised in AIIMS Rishikesh, three in Delhi, and one in Kolkata.
Delhi with over 52 cases reported the highest number of adverse events followed by Maharashtra with 22 cases.
In two days, over 2,24.301 health workers were vaccinated across the country,