Vaccination reduces hospitalization, mortality: ICMR

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that vaccination would reduce hospital admissions and mortality in case of any breakthrough infections citing a study based on clinical characterization and genomic analysis of Covid-19 positive cases who have taken one or two doses of vaccines.

New Delhi:In a positive development, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), on Friday said that vaccination would reduce hospital admissions and mortality in case of any breakthrough infections. Following reports of breakthrough infections among patients immunized with Covid doses, the ICMR conducted the study highlighting clinical characterization and genomic analysis of Covid-19 positive cases who have taken one or two doses of vaccines. The study indicated that majority of the clinical cases in the breakthrough were infected with the Delta variant.

"9.8 percent cases required hospitalization while fatality was observed in only 0.4 percent cases suggesting that the vaccination doses provide reduction in hospital admission and mortality," the ICMR findings said.

Studies earlier reported breakthrough infections in a few parts of the country like Kerala and Delhi. "Taking cognizance of such reports, in April-May, 2021, a nation-wide study was undertaken to understand the clinico-demographic profile and patterns and SARS-CoV-2 strains responsible for post vaccination breakthrough Covid-19 infections across the country," the ICMR said. This is the largest and first nation-wide study of post vaccination breakthrough infections from India.

In the study, ICMR used the network of viral research and diagnostic laboratories (VRDLs) to track breakthrough infections. During the process VRDLs collected clinical and demographic as well as swabs of Covid patients from 17 states and UTs.

The clinical specimens were sequenced using next generation sequencing to determine nucleotide variations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome from these strains. A total of 677 cases were studied. It was found that 482 cases (71 percent) were symptomatic with one or more symptoms, while 29 percent had asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection.

"Fever (69 percent) was the most consistent presentation followed by body ache including headache and nausea (56 percent), cough (45 percent), sore throat (37 percent), loss of smell and taste (22 percent), diarrhoea (6 percent), breathlessness (6 percent) and 1 percent ocular irritation and redness," the ICMR findings said.

The study further said that southern, western, eastern and north-western regions of India reported breakthrough infections mainly from Kappa and Delta variants. The northern and central regions reported such infections due to Alpha, Delta and Kappa variants.

"The majority of the breakthrough infections (86.09 percent) were caused by the Delta variant," the ICMR said. During the study, 71 were vaccinated with Covaxin, 604 were vaccinated with Covishield and 2 were vaccinated with Sinopharm. "Three deaths were reported in the study (0.4 percent) and 67 required hospitalization (9.9 percent)," the study further said.