According to the doctors in the committee, the deaths were not caused by defective vaccines. “It is not the fault of the vaccines, but again it is difficult to say unless we get the reports of the vaccine samples tests from the Kasauli laboratory,” said Dr Radha Aras, professor and head of preventive and social medicine department.

The committee is still awaiting the chemical analysis report, the post-mortem report and the report on vaccine samples of the batches that allegedly caused death, before submitting the final report. “If vaccines are faulty, it would have created a havoc. We have to look at other factors,” added Dr Aras.

The provisional report will be submitted to the state and civic health authorities on Friday. On May 7, a two-month-old baby boy, born to Chembur Naka resident Jyoti Mane, died at Rajawadi hospital. According to health officials, the boy, who was born malnourished, was administered BCG with dilution vaccine on May 6. After a few hours, he reported uneasiness and was rushed to hospital where he died.

In the second instance, 48-day-old Tahira Ansari from Jawahar Nagar, Jogeshwari, was administered the DPT and Hepatitis B vaccine on May 8. Later in the night, she began crying and was breastfed. Later, her condition worsened and she lost consciousness. The family rushed her to the Cooper hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival.

The last case was of a two-month-old Sunilkumar Sharma who was taken to the nearby Shatabdi sub-centre for his first triple DPT dose on May 6. After returning from the centre, there were no apparent problems with the child. Later, Sunilkumar began getting restless and feverish. He died later.