NO death can be directly linked to coronavirus vaccines administered during the National Covid-19 Vaccination Programme from February 24 to November 20.

Deputy Health Minister II Aaron Ago Dagang said this is the outcome of a casualty assessment done on post-mortems, despite there being 535 reported deaths among vaccine recipients during the same period.

“All cases categorised as serious, including deaths, will be investigated by the relevant health facility.

“The report will then be submitted to the Covid-19 Vaccine Pharmacovigilance Special Committee for casualty assessment or the vaccines’ link to side effects.”

This was his reply to a question from Sungai Buloh MP R. Sivarasa, who asked about the outcome of the monitoring of Covid-19 vaccine recipients, including the deaths and side effects linked to the shots in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Aaron said the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency received 23,163 reports of adverse effects following vaccination – 0.45 reports for every 1,000 doses administered – during the same period.

Of the total, he added, only 1,549 are categorised as serious and admitted to hospitals for observation and treatment.

He said 51.8 million doses of the Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, CanSino and Sinopharm vaccines were administered during the same period. – Bernama, November 23, 2021.