Man dies 2 days after getting Sinovac jab

The Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine, CoronaVac, fourth batch arrives in Hong Kong from Beijing. (FILE PHOTO -SCREENSHOT: Information Services Department/isd.gov.hk)

Health authorities reported the death of a 63-year-old man last Sunday—two days after he was inoculated with Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine in a community centre.

In a short statement on Tuesday, the Health Department said it is investigating the death but cautioned that its connection to the CoronaVac jab remains unclear.

“At the moment, the causal relationship with the vaccination could not be ascertained,” the statement said.

The man got vaccinated at the Kwun Chung Sports Centre in Jordan on Feb. 26. He developed shortness of breath on Feb. 28 and went to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for treatment but his situation worsened and he passed away on the same day.

The Health Department did not state the delay in its announcement.

The man’s death was announced as the Centre for Health Protection confirmed 13 new cases of Covid-19. Six of them are imported cases, comprised of two foreign domestic workers from Indonesia and two arrivals each from Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. Four of the seven local Covid-19 cases had no traceable source of infection.

Hong Kong has recorded 11,033 Covid-19 cases since the start of the epidemic last year.

Sinovac’s vaccine, CoronaVac, was approved for emergency use in Hong Kong along with the Comirnaty vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. The two vaccines are the first to be used in the government’s mass vaccination programme to curb the spread of the Covid-19 in the city.

Over 40,000 people in Hong Kong have been vaccinated with CoronaVac since the government received 1 million doses from Sinovac on Feb. 19.