The Department of Health (DH) announced that as of 4pm today (March 11), two reports were received from the Hospital Authority (HA) in the past 24 hours regarding a death case and a critical case, which are suspected serious adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination.
According to the information provided by the HA, the first case involved a 70-year-old woman who had history of hypertension and osteoarthritis of knee. She had shortness of breath this morning and collapsed at home at around noon and was admitted to Kwong Wah Hospital today. She did not respond to resuscitation and passed away this afternoon. According to information provided by the deceased’s family member, she had received CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccination at Kowloon Bay Sports Centre Community Vaccination Centre on March 2.
Another case involved a 67-year-old man who has history of diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia. He suddenly collapsed at Mongkok MTR station at around noon and was admitted to Kwong Wah Hospital today. The preliminary diagnosis was acute coronary syndrome and he is now in critical condition. According to available information, he received CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccination at a private clinic on March 2.
The DH has immediately contacted the HA upon the notifications to obtain further information for conducting investigation and assessment. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), adverse event following immunization refers to any untoward medical occurrence which follows immunization and which does not necessarily have a causal relationship with the usage of the vaccine. The DH will obtain preliminary autopsy findings for the first case and provide all available information to the Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following COVID-19 Immunisation (Expert Committee) as soon as possible. The Expert Committee will conduct causality assessment on the cases based on the algorithm of the WHO when all necessary information is available.
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