STA, 9 April 2021 - The National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) has so far received 3,816 reports of side effects after 404,000 Covid-19 vaccinations. In 16 cases serious side effects have been reported after vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine, including deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, but a link to the vaccine has not been confirmed.
Vaccination with the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine started at the end of December last year, Moderna vaccine has been in use since the second week of January and AstraZeneca from the second week of February.
Until 4 April, at least 276,000 shots of the Pfizer vaccine have been administered with 2,331 reports of side effects, mostly mild ones.
32 reports included undesired events. A dozen older people with several chronic diseases died after the vaccination. In the first case, the person died of a heart attack a day after the vaccination. In the second case, a sudden death occurred 12 days after vaccination in a person with severe chronic heart disease.
In the third case, a person was vaccinated during an incubation period following a coronavirus infection and developed pneumonia, which caused the death.
In the fourth case, death occurred eight days after vaccination because of a heart attack that was a result of an infection of unknown source.
A commission at the Health Ministry analysed all four cases to conclude that connection to the vaccination was not very likely, while the other cases are still being investigated.
In four cases of serious side effects after vaccination with Pfizer, persons had to be hospitalised after they collapsed a few hours after vaccination as they were recovering from Covid-19, a stroke, chest pain, and leukaemia. In these cases connection to the vaccination is also not very likely, the report says.
The commission is also still investigating cases when hospitalisation was needed of vaccinated persons over an allergic reaction, anaphylaxis, a deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, stroke, heart attack, a spontaneous pneumothorax, deterioration of heart failure due to infection of the respiratory system, collapse due to infection of an unknown source, epileptic seizure, fever, chest pain and sever headache.
The NIJZ has also received 1,441 reports of side effects after at least 90,000 shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine had been administered. 16 cases included serious side effects, which is 1.1% of the cases.
Two persons with chronic diseased died a few days after the vaccination. One of the persons had been receiving palliative care due to advanced cancer and the other case is still being investigated.
In one case a person had to be hospitalised for chest pain and breathing difficulties, which is unlikely related to the vaccination, according to the commission.
The commission is still investigating cases when hospitalisation was needed after vaccination due to an allergic reaction, a heart attack, paraesthesia, fever with allergic reaction, heartbeat disorders, unstable angina pectoris, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.
After 38,000 shots of the Moderna vaccine have been administered, 44 cases of side effects have been recorded, including one serious side effect, which is 2.3% of all reports.
An older person, who seems to have been infected with coronavirus developed pneumonia after vaccination and died. The case is still being investigated.
