No deaths directly linked to Covid-19 vaccines, says deputy health minister

There are no death cases that can be directly linked to the Covid-19 vaccines administered during the implementation period of the National Covid-19 Vaccination Programme (PICK) from Feb 24 until Nov 20, Deputy Health Minister II Aaron Ago Dagang said today.

He said this was the outcome of a casualty assessment through the post-mortems although there were 535 reported deaths among vaccine recipients during that period.

“All of the cases that were categorised as serious including deaths will be thoroughly investigated by the relevant health facilities.

“An investigation report will then be submitted to the Covid-19 Vaccine Special Pharmacovigilance Committee (JFK) for casualty assessment or the vaccines’ link to the side effects,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat.

He was responding to an oral question from R Sivarasa (PH-Sungai Buloh) on the outcome of the health ministry’s monitoring of Covid-19 vaccine recipients, including deaths and negative effects linked to the vaccines given.

Aaron said during this period, the reporting system of the National Centre for Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring, National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency had received 23,163 reports of adverse effects following vaccination, or 0.45 for every 1,000 doses administered.

He said of the total, only 1,549 reports were categorised as serious which was equivalent to 0.03 reports for every 1,000 doses given.

“These were admitted to hospital for observation and treatment for several days,” he said.

Aaron also said that during the same period, 51,842,386 doses of Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, CanSino and Sinopharm vaccines were administered.