Safety Surveillance of Covid 19 vaccine in tertiary care hospital among target population - an observational study

Vaccines are a critical new tool in the battle against COVID-19. Development of safe and effective vaccines are necessary to combat the pandemic. The aim of the study is to provide public awareness to improve vaccination rate and prevent vaccination hesitancy by studying the knowledge, attitude and perception about COVID-19 vaccines, the occurrence of side effects after the administration of COVID-19 vaccine and its management. The participants who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were provided the previously structured and approved data collection form. The knowledge, attitude and perception towards COVID-19 vaccination was then determined by allocating a score for each response. The collected data was statistically interpreted using SPSS software and R software. The incidence of side effects following administration of 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccine and its management was analyzed. The knowledge regarding COVID-19 vaccinations was low among more than half of the total study population. Female gender showed a higher knowledge score compared to males. Nearly half of the study population (42.5%) was found to have a high attitude score. Age as a variable was found to be of significant association with attitude. It was concluded from our study that the majority of the participants were aware about the COVID-19 vaccines available in India. This study also points out that a majority of the participants experienced fear and hesitancy prior to getting vaccinated. Only a minority of the respondents were of the belief that vaccination would prevent the spread of COVID -19 infection.