COVID vaccination before SARS-CoV-2 virus infection prevented 60 per cent of post-infection deaths in India, according to a study led by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

A team from the ICMR’s National Clinical Registry for COVID evaluated factors related to post-discharge mortality during the first year after COVID in 14,419 participants.

The findings showed that men, adults over 40, people with comorbidities, and those with moderate-severe COVID disease were all more at risk for death within one year after discharge.

“Similar trends were seen in the participants in the 18-45 years age group,” the study said. Of the 14,419 participants, 942 (6.5 per cent) suffered from all-cause mortality, it added.  

However, the researchers stated that the findings relate to patients who had been hospitalised during their initial COVID infection and cannot be generalised to all patients.

The ICMR is also conducting other studies to understand the unusual spike in “sudden deaths” among young people post the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"We are studying sudden deaths. There are four studies going on. We will get the results soon and will let everyone know as we are continuing to look at it from different angles whether there is an increase in the number of deaths," Rajiv Bahl, ICMR Director General (DG), had told IANS in June. 

He said that "we are trying to see what are potential causes" and the ICMR is awaiting a peer review of the findings before making the assessment public.

Bahl added that the people who died are considered to be 'cases' and those who survived are considered 'controls'.

"There is a design which is called a case-control study. In case-control, the deaths are due to heart attacks. In this all factors are seen, the age, morbidity, habits and how did they get COVID-infected, whether it was severe COVID, did they take COVID vaccine or not, and many other factors are seen," the DG said.