A Taitung County doctor yesterday advised older people receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to avoid engaging in strenuous activity for a few days following vaccination.
They should particularly avoid over-exerting the arm they were vaccinated in, Huang Yi-chun (黃奕竣) said.
Health workers yesterday began administering the 1.24 million shots of AstraZeneca vaccine received from Japan last week, and those aged 75 or older are included in the categories of eligible people.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
On the day of vaccination, as well as immediately after vaccination, it is advisable to drink plenty of water, Huang said.
It is also advisable for men to sit while urinating at night after being vaccinated to avoid injury from the potential side effect micturition syncope — fainting while urinating due to a severe drop in blood pressure, he said.
Vaccinated people should ensure they have adequate nutrition in their diet, particularly protein, which helps the immune system produce antibodies, Huang said, adding that those with a lack of appetite the day after vaccination could try eating boiled eggs or egg dessert.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Those who take vitamin supplements should take vitamins C and E, and spend 15 minutes in the sun every day to boost vitamin D intake, all of which helps the immune system, he said.
Those who suffer from sarcopenia — progressive muscle loss — should in particular supplement intake of those vitamins, as well as foods with branched-chain amino acids and omega-3 fatty acids, he added.
It is important for older people to maintain pressure on the injection site for a longer time after vaccination, because blood coagulates more slowly in older people, Huang said.
“It is also a good idea to exercise the deltoid muscle [shoulder] before getting vaccinated, because side effects may be less pronounced the thicker the muscle is,” he said.
People should not take painkillers as a preventive measure before vaccination, as one study has shown that doing so could lower the immune response, Huang said, adding that it is better to take painkillers after vaccination and only if necessary.
Some discomfort after vaccination is a normal response in a healthy person, he said.
“If you regularly suffer from inflammation of any body part, that’s really going to flare up after you get vaccinated, so that’s something older people should be aware of,” Huang said.
Family members and caregivers can help older people by massaging their legs during the two days following vaccination to help the blood flow, he said.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS