A California resident who tested positive for COVID-19 in late December died last week several hours after receiving an injection of the vaccine, officials announced.
The individual, who was not identified, was reported to have died on Thursday in Placer County, in the Sacramento metropolitan area.
Their death was announced by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office in a Facebook post on Saturday, with the department adding that the incident remains under investigation.
“The individual received the COVID-19 vaccine several hours before his death on January 21, 2021,” wrote the agency. “The vaccine was not administered by Placer County Public Health.”
It is not clear whether the person received the Modern vaccine from Pfizer.
‘There are several local, state and federal agencies actively investigating this case; any reports on the cause of death are premature, pending the outcome of the investigation. Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased, ‘continued the sheriff’s office.
The death was announced by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office in a Facebook post on Saturday, with the department adding that the incident remains under investigation.
Officials in the Placer County Coroner’s Office will conduct an autopsy on Monday to determine the specific cause of the person’s death.
No other details were shared by the authorities.
In a statement, the California Department of Health said: ‘Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased. We take these cases seriously, so we are working with our government partners to investigate the cause.
“We are working collaboratively and will continue to use data and science to determine how to proceed.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are monitoring reports of allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine, but health officials say the risk of a serious reaction is “extremely rare”.
Last week, California state epidemiologist Dr. Erica S. Pan recommended that providers stop administering a batch of the Modern vaccine ‘out of extreme caution’ after it caused an allergic reaction in less than ten people.
“Although no vaccine or medical procedure is risk-free, the risk of a serious adverse reaction is very small,” wrote the California Department of Health.
“Although there is less data on adverse reactions related to the Modern vaccine, a similar vaccine shows that the expected rate of anaphylaxis is approximately 1 in 100,000.”
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is monitoring reports of allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine, but health officials say the risk of a serious reaction is “extremely rare” (file photo)
Vaccines are known to have some side effects, which include tiredness, headache, chills and fever, but these are “normal signs that your body is building protection” and should disappear in a few days, said the CDC.
Speaking about the person’s death in Placer County, Dr. Dean Blumberg, an infectious disease specialist at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, told the KTLA that people shouldn’t blame too quickly.
‘Many people are going to make the connection to the vaccine because of the moment,’ he said. ‘[My] The first suggestion is that it is probably not related to the vaccine.
“We know that for severe allergic reactions that occur after immunization, the vast majority of them occur 15-30 minutes after immunization,” said Blumberg.
He added that if the death occurred several hours after receiving the vaccine, “it is probably not the serious allergic reaction, anaphylaxis, that concerns us.”
The country’s leading infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, recommends that people who test positive for the virus should not be tested until at least 90 days after the date of the initial infection.
In California, nearly 5 million doses of vaccine have been distributed and 2,008,220 have been administered (photo: farm workers receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Rancho Tudor in Mecca, California, on January 21
As of Sunday morning, 41,411,550 doses of vaccine have been distributed and 20,537,990 have been administered across the country. In total, just over three million people are fully vaccinated, having received both doses of the vaccine.
In California, nearly 5 million doses have been distributed and 2,008,220 have been administered.
While vaccination efforts are well underway, the state continues to be devastated by the virus.
Last month, about 423 Californians died of coronavirus each day, data from Johns Hopkins University show.
The state has recorded 36,405 deaths and more than 3.1 million cases since the pandemic began in March.
Across the United States, 24,995,420 cases of the virus have been reported and 414,441 Americans have died.