Centre needs to work on war footing to deal with rare side effects of Covishield: AAP

New Delhi: Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Wednesday said there was need to deal with the "rare side effects" of Covishield vaccine on a war footing and alleged that the central government has done nothing so far in the matter.

In a press conference, Bharadwaj said that the Centre should talk to the vaccine manufacturing company, doctors and scientists for devising a mechanism to help people detect "warning signs or symptoms" of any side effects of the vaccine.

"This issue should not be politicised but the Centre has been sleeping and it has done nothing so far. This vaccine was banned in many European countries in 2021 when government in our country was administering and promoting it, " he said.

Bharadwaj said there were already questions in the minds of the people if the vaccine was in any way linked to the "sudden rise in heart attack cases".

There were numerous videos of people suddenly collapsing and dying during workouts and other such normal activities in different parts of the country.

UK-headquartered pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has admitted that in "very rare cases", its COVID-19 vaccine can cause a blood clot-related side-effect but the causal link is unknown, according to court papers being quoted in the UK media.

The Daily Telegraph reported that in a legal document submitted to the High Court in London in February for a group action brought by 51 claimants, AstraZeneca admitted that the vaccine developed with the University of Oxford to protect against COVID-19 may cause Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS) in "very rare cases".

The AstraZeneca Vaxzevria vaccine, also manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, was marketed in India as Covishield.