The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said it would record the death of a 85-year-old woman in Tainan that occurred one day after she received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine as a suspected adverse reaction case.
The woman was found dead yesterday morning after she received her first dose of the vaccine on Friday, the center said, adding that it is the first death reported in Taiwan in someone who was inoculated with the Moderna jab.
The eligibility for the jab was on Thursday expanded to vaccination priority groups 4 to 8, including people aged 65 or older.
Photo courtesy of the Central Epidemic Command Center
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is CECC spokesman, said that the Tainan Public Health Bureau informed the center about the case, which has not yet been reported as a suspected adverse reaction.
The center would help the woman’s family file the report, Chuang said, adding that local health authorities had performed a postmortem examination while an autopsy request is pending with her family.
As of 4pm on Thursday, 157,289 people had received a dose of the Moderna vaccine and 57 adverse events have been reported — including 31 non-serious events, two serious allergic reactions and 24 serious adverse events, CECC data showed.
Chuang said that common side effects that occur in more than one in 10 people include pain or swelling at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle ache, chills, joint ache, fever, swollen lymph nodes, nausea and vomiting.
Other common side effects that occur in one to 10 in 100 people include redness at the injection site and a rash, while one to 10 in 1,000 people report itchiness at the injection site and one to 10 in 10,000 people report rare side effects such as facial palsy and swelling, Chuang said.
People should stay at the vaccination site for at least 15 minutes after receiving the jab, and at least 30 minutes if they have previously experienced an allergic reaction to a vaccination or any other injection, he added.
The Centers for Disease Control’s Taiwan V-Watch online vaccination follow-up platform has recorded pain at the injection site, fatigue and muscle ache as the most common side effects to COVID-19 vaccines by Moderna and AstraZeneca, he said.
Among those registered with the platform who received the AstraZeneca jab, 26.9 percent reported a fever after the first dose and 3 percent after the second, while 3 percent of recipients of the Moderna jab reported a fever, he said, adding that most of the reported side effects eased within seven days after vaccination.
The percentage of people aged 18 to 49 who reported side effects was higher than in other age brackets, Chuang added.
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