The health ministry on Monday said that a government panel on AEFI (adverse events following immunisation) has found 26 potential cases of bleeding and clotting after administration of the Covid-19 vaccine, Covishield.

The AEFI Committee said that it had studied 498 out of 700 "serious and severe events" and found that 26 had been reported as "potential thromboembolic events" in which there is a chance of fatal formation of a blood clot that could break loose and be carried by the blood stream to block another vessel. Covishield, the AstraZeneca-Oxford University Covid-19 vaccine linked to clotting problems reported in few cases - less than 0.61 cases per million doses administered.

According to the reports, till 3 April, a total of 75,435,381 vaccine doses had been administered (Covishield – 68,650,819; Covaxin – 6,784,562). Of these, 65,944,106 were first doses and 9,491,275 second doses.

The panel also reported that no potential thromboembolic events were reported after administering of the drug, Covaxin, the vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech.

It's important to know that thromboembolic events can happen in the general population... but, research shows that the risk is nearly 70% lower in people of South and Southeast Asian descent than in people of European descent.

Since the Covid-19 vaccination drive began, over 23,000 adverse incidents have been recorded via the CO-WIN network from 684 of the country's 753 districts. Just 700 cases were confirmed to be serious and extreme (@9.3 cases/million doses administered), according to the statement.