As many as 180 people have died in India till March 29, after being vaccinated against coronavirus, The Hindu reported on Thursday, quoting data from the official body tracking adverse events following immunisation, or AEFI. More than 6 crore Indians had received the vaccine by March 28, according to health ministry data, reported Moneycontrol.

A presentation made to the National AEFI Committee at a meeting on March 31, showed that there have been 617 severe and serious cases of AEFI in the country after coronavirus shots. This means that 29.2% of these AEFI cases resulted in deaths.

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However, the data does not reflect if the deaths were caused due to the vaccine.

Out of the 617 instances of severe and serious AEFI, 492 have so far been classified on the basis of their severity, by the AEFI Secretariat of the Immunisation Technical Support Unit at the Union health ministry, according to The Hindu. Similarly, 124 of the 180 deaths have so far been classified for their cause.

Of these 124 deaths, more than 63 (nearly 51%) have been categorised as being caused due to acute coronary syndrome (a range of conditions associated with sudden, reduced blood flow to the heart), or heart attacks. Another 11 deaths (12%) are due to strokes.

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The National AEFI Committee has so far made public the causality assessment of only 13 AEFIs, which include 10 deaths, The Hindu reported. The vaccine was not found to have caused death in any of these 10 cases.

Jacob John, a virologist at Christian Medical College in Vellore, who was quoted by The Hindu, analysed the 124 deaths classified by the AEFI Secretariat of the Immunisation Technical Support Unit, on a more granular basis.

Ninety-three of these 124 deaths occurred within three days after vaccination, according to John. In the period between the fourth and seventh days after the shot, 18 people died. Eleven of the fatalities took place 8-28 days after vaccination.