Monitoring should be done not for 72 hours but for 28 days after vaccination: Dr. NK Arora

New Delhi, 16 May 2021 Sunday

Vaccination camps are underway across the country at the time of the Corona epidemic. At the time, Dr. NK Arora, one of the country's top health officials and a member of the nationally formed Adverse Events Following Immunization, said that all states in the country should monitor vaccinators for up to 28 days. Currently, people in the country are monitored for up to 72 hours after vaccination.

Dr NK Arora says many other vaccines are ready to hit the market and monitoring of post-vaccination side effects should be stepped up in such cases. He said all the AEFI data will be put on the public portal soon. He also said that this is a step that all health experts have been demanding for a long time.

Dr. NK Arora said that monitoring of 70 million vaccinated people has been completed so far. Less than 0.5% of these cases have serious side effects after vaccination. He further said that a full report on the matter has been submitted to the government and related data will be released soon. He said more time is needed for monitoring and it is happening in many countries.

He said that now all the states should contact the local authorities and come up with a system in which information regarding the 28-day side effects of vaccinated people could be obtained. He said all these vaccines are new and more follow-up is needed to know the side effects associated with them. Earlier this week, the central government said that with the arrival of international vaccines in the country, doses of Rs 25-30 crore per month are expected to be available.