2 Covid-19 vaccine recipients die in Telangana, Gujarat; officials blame comorbidities

VADODARA/HYDERABAD: A 30-year-old Gujarat sanitation worker with a suspected cardiac condition died within hours of getting a Covid-19 vaccine shot on Sunday while a 55-year-old health worker in Telangana who had taken ill on the 10th day since her vaccination succumbed to what health officials termed “underlying co-morbidities”. In both cases, which took the number of people dying in India post-vaccination to 12, family members blamed alleged side-effects of the Covishield vaccine for the deaths.


In Vadodara, municipal corporation employee Jignesh Solanki’s health deteriorated rapidly after he was forced to take the vaccine at his workplace, his brother Ganesh alleged. He was taken to SSG Hospital, where doctors declared him dead on arrival. “He became unconscious three to four hours after the vaccine was administered. Had there been any reaction due to the vaccine, it would have happened within the first 30 minutes,” Dr Ranjan Aiyer, superintendent of SSG Hospital, said.

Civic medical officer Dr Devesh Patel said the body was sent for post-mortem to pinpoint the exact cause of death. “The medical history of the deceased shows that he was suffering from compensated heart disease since 2016.”

Telangana’s third death post-vaccination was reported at Kasipet in Mancherial district. The deceased, whose name the health authorities withheld, had been administered a dose of Covishield on January 19 at a primary health centre in Kasipet, apparently didn’t experience any problems until last Friday.