New Delhi: A study by Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) has found that Covishield vaccine reduces fresh COVID-19 infections by 93 per cent and deaths by 98 per cent, the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.
Data of 15.95 lakh healthcare workers and frontline workers — who were administered Covishield vaccine — of the Indian armed forces was analysed for this study, the ministry noted.
India started its vaccination drive in January 16. The aforementioned 15.95 lakh workers were among the first recipients of Covishield vaccine.
“According to the study, there was a 93 per cent reduction in fresh infections and the deaths were reduced by 98 per cent. It is possibly the largest study worldwide on COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness, so far,” the Defence Ministry’s statement mentioned.
The study was largely conducted on healthy males with few co-morbid illnesses, the ministry said.
“It (the study) did not include children and the elderly. In the Vin-WIN study, authors calculated incident rate and incident rate ration,” the ministry noted.
Vice Admiral Rajat Datta, Director General, AFMS, stated that the study was carried out on anonymised data from the existing armed forces health surveillance system which had been enhanced for monitoring COVID-19.
“The surveillance system had data for daily vaccinations with first and second dose, dates of testing positive for COVID-19 and COVID related deaths; which were analysed,” the Defence Ministry mentioned.
This study occurred when the nation was witnessing the second wave of the pandemic, it said.
“Despite that, the fully vaccinated group which had gone up to 82 per cent of 15.95 lakh showed seven deaths only,” it mentioned.
