Effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines (CovishieldTM and Covaxin ®) in healthcare workers in Mumbai, India: A retrospective cohort analysis.

BACKGROUND: India started its vaccination programme for Coronavirus-19 infection (COVID-19) on 16 January 2021 with CovishieldTM (Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India) and Covaxin ® (Bharat Biotech, India). We designed the present study to study the effectiveness of vaccines for COVID-19 in prevention of breakthrough infections and severe symptomatic cases among health care workers in a real-life scenario in Mumbai, India. Furthermore, we also wanted to study the factors associated with this effectiveness. METHODS: This is cohort analysis of secondary data of 2762 individuals working in a tertiary health care setting in Mumbai, India (16 January 2021 to 16 October 2021). Vaccination records of all groups of health care staff (including the date of vaccination, type of vaccine taken, and date of positivity for COVID-19) were maintained at the hospital. The staff were tested for COVID-19 at least once a week and when symptomatic. The observation time for everyone was divided into unvaccinated, partially vaccinated (14 days after the first dose); and fully vaccinated (14 days after the second dose). If the individual was found to be positive, the day of positivity was considered the 'day of the event' for that individual. We combined unvaccinated/partially vaccinated into one group and completely vaccinated in the other group. We estimated hazard ratios (HR) and their 95% confidence intervals. The vaccine effectiveness (VE) was assessed as (1-HR)*100. RESULTS: The mean age (SD) of the study participants was 32.3 (8.3) years; majority of these individuals had taken Covishield TM (99.0%) and only 0.9% (n = 27) had taken Covaxin ®. The incidence rate in the overall population was 0.067/100 person-days (PD). The incidence rate was significantly higher in the unvaccinated/partially vaccinated group compared with the fully vaccinated group (0.0989 / 100 PD vs 0.0403/100 PD; p < 0.001). The adjusted HR (aHR) in the fully vaccinated group compared with the unvaccinated/partially vaccinated group in the complete cohort was 0.30 (95% CI: 0.23, 0.39). Thus, the vaccine effectiveness (VE) for full vaccination was 70% (95% CI: 61%, 77%). It remained the same in the Covishield TM only cohort. The VE in completely vaccinated and with a history of previous infection was 88% (95% CI: 80%, 93%). Only 11 health care workers required hospitalization over the entire observation period; the incidence rate in our cohort was 0.0016 / 100 PD. None of the HCWs reported any severe adverse events after vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: In this real-world scenario, we did find that complete vaccination reduced the rate of infection, particularly severe infection in health care personnel even during the severe delta wave in the country. Even among those infected, the hospitalisation rates were very low, and none died. We did not record any major side effects of vaccination in these personnel. Previous infection with COVID-19 and complete vaccination had a significantly higher effectiveness in prevention of infection.

Clinical Significance of Liver Function Abnormality in Patients with COVID-19: A Single-center Experience from Western India.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The impact of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) on liver function remains to be fully elucidated. This study was designed to investigate such and determine the clinical significance in determining mortality risk. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted in patients with COVID-19 from March 2020 to July 2020. Clinical details were retrieved from electronic medical records to obtain clinical characteristics, medical history, laboratory tests, therapeutic intervention, and outcome data. RESULTS: A total of 184 patients with COVID-19 were included (median age: 45.5 years), comprised of 62.5% men. In total, 22 (12.0%) patients had severe infection and 162 (88.0%) had mild to moderate infection. Overall, 95 (51.6%) showed abnormal liver function test (LFT) and 17 (9.2%) showed normal LFT at admission. The median age, hospital stay, and LFT were significantly higher in severe vs. non-severe infection (p<0.001). Out of 12 deaths, the majority were due to severe infection (n=11). Deaths were also due to acute respiratory distress syndrome (n=5), cardiac reasons (n=3), and sepsis with multiorgan failure (n=3). The median age, hospital stay and number of intensive care unit admissions were higher in patients having abnormal LFT compared to normal LFT. Incidence of elevated aspartate aminotransferase (42.8% and 40.4%), alanine transaminase (43.7% and 41.6%), and hypoalbuminemia (71.4% and72.7%) at admission and discharge were more common in severe infection. The mean survival was significantly lower in severe infection compared to those with non-severe disease (17.2 vs. 52.3 days; p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Incidence of abnormal liver function was higher in patients with severe COVID-19 and was associated with prolonged hospital stay; mortality was associated with severity of COVID-19. For ruling out the risk of liver injury, it is crucial to vigilantly monitor the liver function parameters in patients with COVID-19 admitted to hospital.