UDUPI: Two cases of Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) in the first two-days of vaccination were reported in Udupi. However, both these cases – one from TMA Pai Hospital and the other from Urban Health Centre in Udupi were mild symptoms, DHO Dr Sudhirchandra Sooda said.
These two, vaccinated in the above centres complained of mild stomach ache, Dr Sooda said adding this could mostly be due to apprehension, anxiety and nothing to do with the vaccine per se. “Both the patients who reported AEFI are doing fine,” he said adding the health team will go ahead with the vaccination programme as per the schedule drawn.
40 more frontline health workers at the TMA Pai Hospital received the vaccine on Sunday to go with the 286 who did so on Saturday. Dr Sooda said the numbers could pick up by around Tuesday or Wednesday once there is clarity in the minds of beneficiaries on AEFI cases, if any.
‘‘This is the reason why I along with Dr Prashant Bhat, district COVID-19 nodal officer and Dr M G Rama, district RCH officer took the vaccine on Saturday’’ he said. The drive could also receive a boost
once the technical snags with CoWIN App are resolved, he said. “Most of the registered beneficiaries did not receive their alerts from the CoWIN platforms and we have shared our findings with the state health
department,” he said. Incidentally, this snag was one of the reasons why only 286 out of the 538 beneficiaries turned up and received their vaccine on Saturday, he detailed.
Meanwhile, four new COVID-19 cases were reported from Udupi district on Sunday. With these new cases, the total number of positive cases stands at 23,222. The total number of COVID deaths in the district is 189 as on Sunday. Out of four new cases, two were asymptomatic and two were symptomatic.
The district health officials are planning to have a session at district government hospital, Ajjarakad and at urban health center, Udupi to vaccinate 200 frontline health workers in total. But that will be confirmed only by Monday morning, sources said.