Philippine Health Worker Who Had One Vaccine Dose Died of Covid

(Bloomberg) -- A health worker in the Philippines died from the coronavirus nine days after being vaccinated, according to the government, which said that the death wasn’t caused by the inoculation.

The health worker received one shot of Sinovac Biotech Ltd.’s vaccine on March 4, Food and Drug Administration head Eric Domingo said at a virtual briefing Thursday. Sinovac has been informed about the death, and the government asked if similar incidents have been reported in other nations, he said.

The 47-year-old female health worker was infected with Covid-19 last year, and had asthma, hypertension and diabetes. She again tested positive for the virus on Feb. 22 but got a negative result the following day. She was vaccinated on March 4 and tested positive four days after. She died on March 13, according to Rommel Lobo from the government committee monitoring adverse vaccine effects.

“It is expected that a few weeks after vaccination, your risk of getting the illness is the same as a non-vaccinated person,” Domingo said.

The “serious adverse event” isn’t a reason to suspend vaccination, the health department said on Wednesday. It also urged all health workers to get vaccinated amid a recent surge in Covid-19 cases which totaled more than 635,000 as of Wednesday, with the daily infections hitting the highest since August in the past days.

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