COVID-19 vaccine: Important information! Can people with allergies take it? Does it cause blood clotting? Experts say this

COVID-19 Latest Update in India: The COVID-19 vaccination drive began in the country with Covishield and Covaxin from January 16, 2021. As per the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, so far, 23.61 crore vaccine doses have been administered to the under the nationwide vaccination drive. However, till now, there are certain queries among the people regarding the COVID-19 vaccination. Dr. V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog and Dr. Randeep Guleria, Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences have addressed various doubts people have regarding COVID-19 vaccines in a special programme on DD News on June 6, 2021.

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One of the most common queries among people is that if people with allergies can get vaccinated? In this regard, Dr. Paul stated, "If someone has a significant allergy problem, then COVID vaccine should be taken only after medical advice. However, if it is only a question of minor allergies like getting common cold, skin allergies, etc., one should not hesitate to take the vaccine." Dr. Guleria assured of the fact that arrangements have been made at all vaccination sites for management of allergies arising due to vaccination. He suggested that the prior medication for allergies should not be stopped and one should get oneself vaccinated while taking the medication regularly.

Dr. Paul and Dr. Guleria also answered the question on blood clotting after taking the vaccine shots. In this regard, Dr. Paul said that a few cases with such complication have been noted particularly with the Astra Zeneca vaccine and especially in Europe where this risk was seen to be present to some extent in their younger population due to their lifestyle, body and genetic structure. He further added, "But, I would like to assure you that we have systematically examined this data in India and found that such blood-clotting incidents are almost negligible here - so negligible that one need not worry about it."

Dr. Guleria also stated in this regard that blood clotting after surgery among Indian population is less frequent in comparison to the US and European countries. Thus, this side-effect, named as Vaccine induced Thrombosis or Thrombocytopenia, is very rare in India and found to occur in a much lesser proportion than in Europe.

In other COVID-19 related news, India has reported less than one lakh new COVID-19 cases after 63 days. As per the data from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 86,498 new cases reported in last 24 hours which is the lowest in 66 days. So far, more than 24 crore vaccine doses have been provided to the states and the union territories through the central government and through direct state procurement category.