A Study on Safety and Clinical Efficacy of COVID-19 Vaccines Among Adults in South India: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 virus caused a pandemic in 2020. Since vaccine was the only modality to combat the pandemic, the development of vaccine was fast tracked and made available within 1 year of detecting the virus. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the safety and clinical efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted between June 2021 and September 2021 in Bengaluru using digital data capture. Data pertaining to sociodemographic profile, details of the vaccine administered, adverse events developing within 7 days of vaccine administration, and breakthrough infection were collected. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, and mean and standard deviation were used. Inferential statistics such as the Chi-square test were used to test association. Results: The study involved 103 study participants. Totally 100 (97.08) participants had taken Covishield and 3 (2.92) had taken Covaxin. Only 3 (2.9%) study participants had breakthrough infections and all these three participants had taken Covishield. Ninety-four (91.26%) of study participants had taken at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. A total of 62 (60.19%) participants had one or the other adverse reaction following vaccination. Only 3 (2.9%) study participants had breakthrough infections and all these three participants had taken Covishield. Conclusion: The given COVID-19 vaccines are safe and clinically efficacious with no statistically significant difference between the COVID-19 vaccine type and adverse reaction or with the incidence of breakthrough infection.