Covishield India: demystifying myths through an early multicenter study

Nationwide COVID-19 vaccination was initiated in India on January 16, 2021, in a phased manner with vaccines including Covishield. This vaccine was indigenously prepared by Serum Institute of India in line with the Oxford-AstraZeneca ChAdOx1 vaccine developed at the University of Oxford. This is the first multicenter study to assess the safety of the indigenously prepared Covishield vaccine in India.

Multicenter observational descriptive study.

This was a multicenter study carried out in northern and eastern India. Individuals who received the first dose of the Covishield vaccine were followed up for 7 days to check for any adverse effects or systemic effects post vaccination. The data were collected by the authors with a participant-administered questionnaire. The primary end point was the incidence of adverse or systemic effects within 7 days post vaccination.

No serious adverse or systemic effects were noted in 7 days of follow-up. Nonserious systemic effects were seen in 42.0% of individuals post vaccination. Myalgia and/or fatigue was the most common effect of vaccination in 25.7%, followed by fever in 22.0% of individuals. In most individuals, the systemic effects started 6 to 12 hours post vaccination. There were no reports of fresh onset of systemic effects of any kind beyond 48 hours of vaccination. Women and older adults tolerated the vaccination better.

The absence of serious adverse effects in our study will help allay fears around vaccine acceptance and give a boost to the vaccination campaign worldwide.