COVID 19 VACCINATION COVERAGE AND ITS ADVERSE EVENTS AMONG GENERAL POPULATION OF CENTRAL INDIA- A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Background: The ongoing pandemic of Corona virus disease 2019(covid-19) is caused by Severe acute respiratory syndrome Corona virus 2(SARCOV-2). The World Health Organization declared it as public health emergency of international concern on January 2020, and later declared as pandemic on 11 March 2020. Indian population are less aware of the pandemic and have less access to health care facilities. Vaccinating these populations can decrease disease burden and control the on-going pandemic. Aim and Objectives: To study AEFI pattern following COVID- 19 vaccination in populations of central India. To estimate the COVID 19 vaccination coverage in general populations of central India. To assess the factorsresponsible for COVID 19 vaccination coverage. Material and Methods: Acommunity based crosssectionalstudy will be conducted among 350 participantsresiding in the eld practice area of Urban and Rural Health care Training Centre of tertiary medical college of Nagpur from January 2022 to February 2022. Data is collected using structured interview questionnaire after obtaining informed consent. Data is entered in Excelsheet and SPSS 20 for analysis. Analysis will be done using Chi square test and a p Value of <0.05 will be taken as signicant. Results: In the present study, 84.31% (301 out of 357) of the study participants had taken COVID Vaccine, of which 217 (60.78%) were partially vaccinated and remaining 80 (23.52%)were fullyVaccinated.Most ofthe vaccinated study participants had takenCovishield vaccine 237 (78.73%)followed byCovaxin vaccine 62 (20.59%). And 16.52% were aware about AE reporting however those who aware of them 20% report Adverse events. The percentage of The AEFI st nd experienced after 1 dose was 112 (51.61%) and 2 dose was 30 (35.71%). Fever and general fatigue were the most common AEFI experienced. Conclusion: The COVID vaccine coverage was good in general population.Although adverse events due to vaccines were reported during the survey none of the eventsreported were severe orserious, which reiteratesthat the vaccines used in India are safe and the events will last without any kind of sequelae.Studies ofthis nature reinforce theneedfor vigilant monitoring and reporting of AEFIs