Third healthcare worker dies after Covid vaccination in Telangana, officials cite comorbidities
Days after she received the Covid-19 vaccine, a 55-year-old healthcare worker from Telangana's Mancherial district died in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Another healthcare worker in Telangana who was vaccinated against Covid-19 earlier this month has died. This is the third such incident that has come to light in the state since India commenced the world's largest vaccination drive on January 16.
The deceased has been identified as a 55-year-old female healthcare worker. A resident of Kasipet village in Telangana's Mancherial district, the healthcare worker had received the coronavirus vaccine at PHC Kasipet on January 19.
Earlier this week, the healthcare worker started experiencing shortness of breath and giddiness. She was admitted to Medilife Hospital in Mancherial on January 29 and later referred to the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), Hyderabad where she breathed her last on January 30.
Officials with the Telangana government's health department said the cause of death is "clearly indicative of underlying morbidities and not due to Covid vaccination".
They went on to add that the healthcare worker's death was caused by "cardio-respiratory arrest triggered by multiple morbidities such as Kyphoscoliosis with restricted lung disease, respiratory infection with type-2 respiratory failure and accelerated hypertension with left ventricular failure".
Prior to this, one healthcare worker who was vaccinated against Covid-19 had died in Nirmal and another in Warangal districts of Telangana.
Since the mass inoculation drive began, over 37 lakh healthcare and frontline workers in India have been vaccinated against Covid-19. In the first week of January, Indian regulators had approved SII's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin for emergency use in the country. These vaccines are also being shipped out to a number of neighbouring countries.