
A 42-year-old ambulance driver in Nirmal district who was vaccinated on Tuesday died in the early hours of Wednesday after complaining of chest pain. The Telangana government has said that primary investigation suggested that the death was not related to the vaccine.
The health care worker was given Covishield at Kuntala Primary Health Centre in Nirmal district. “At about 2.30 am on January 20, he is said to have developed chest pain and was brought dead to the District Hospital at Nirmal around 5.30 am. Preliminary findings suggest that the death seems to be unrelated to vaccination. As per the guidelines, postmortem will be conducted by a team of doctors. The district AEFI (Adverse Event Following Immunization) committee is examining the matter and will submit its report to the state AEFI committee which will submit it to the Centre,” Director of Public Health, G Srinivas Rao, said in a statement.
Later in the evening, the Union Health Ministry said a “post mortem is going on”. It said 82 adverse events were reported till 6 pm on the fifth day of the vaccination drive from across the country. “No case of serious/severe AEFI is attributable to vaccination till date,” the health ministry said.

Telangana has so far inoculated 69,625 people. According to the Director of Public Health, 77 people reported AEFI, of which three required hospitalisation and were stable. —With inputs from ENS, Delhi.