DH receives one report of suspected serious adverse event following COVID-19 vaccination from HA

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     The Department of Health (DH) announced that as of 4pm today (April 23), one death case, reported as a suspected serious adverse event following COVID-19 vaccination, had been received from the Hospital Authority (HA) in the past 24 hours.
      
     According to the information provided by the HA, the case involved a 43-year-old man with a history of hyperlipidaemia and obesity. He had sudden cardiac arrest at home on April 22 and showed no vital signs upon arrival at the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department of Yan Chai Hospital. Resuscitation at the hospital was performed but in vain and he passed away on the same night. According to information, he received a dose of Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccination at the Tsuen King Circuit Sports Centre Community Vaccination Centre on April 18 and there was no record that the man complained of feeling unwell during observation at the Vaccination Centre.
      
     The DH contacted the HA upon notification to obtain further information on the incident to facilitate causality assessment. So far, there is no clinical evidence to indicate that his death was caused by the vaccine. The HA has referred the case to the Coroner. Also, the DH will pass the case based on the established mechanism to the Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following COVID-19 Immunisation for conducting causality assessment.

     According to the World Health Organization, an adverse event following immunisation is any medical occurrence that follows immunisation and that does not necessarily have a causal relationship with the usage of the vaccine.
      
     As background information, according to the HA, there were about 500 deaths recorded at the HA's A&E Departments between March 22 and April 18, 2021 (on average about 18 deaths at each A&E Department per day), and among these cases about 60 persons were aged 40 to 59. For the same period of time (i.e. March 22 to April 18) in 2018 to 2020, there were on average 60 persons aged 40 to 59 who died at the HA's A&E Departments. The state of death records at the A&E Departments is provided as a cross-reference to enhance fuller public understanding of cases of the kind recorded on vaccine recipients.

     Separately, the DH has received a Coroner's Court case involving a 66-year-old woman who was found unconscious on a bed in the morning of April 22. She was certified dead at the scene and her body was sent to a public mortuary. According to information, she received her second dose of Comirnaty at the Sai Wan Ho Sports Centre Community Vaccination Centre on April 12. The DH will pass the case based on the established mechanism to the Expert Committee for conducting causality assessment.

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