THE Ministry of Health has received 93 applications for special financial assistance due to adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) due to Covid-19 vaccines as of November 25, Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

The health minister said that from the applications received, eight have been approved for payout amounting to RM132,500, which will be made by the National Disaster Management Agency.

“Seventy-eight applications are still under evaluation while seven applications were rejected for not being categorised as serious AEFI,” Khairy said at a press conference in Putrajaya today.

Although eight applications have been approved for payout, Khairy reiterated that there are no vaccine-related deaths reported.

“Only eight cases from 52.5 million doses of vaccines administered and there are no deaths caused by the vaccines,” he said.

Khairy said the AEFI special assistance will only be considered if certain criterion are met, namely:

• Adverse events that occur within three months of receiving the vaccine;

• Categorised as serious based on an evaluation report by the Covid-19 vaccine special pharmacovigilance committee; and

• The AEFI report shall be submitted to the national pharmaceutical regulatory division by the health personnel treating the patient.

The minister said the payout value will be determined based on the recommendation of the medical technical committee and decided by the Covid-19 harmful vaccine effects special financial assistance steering committee. – November 26, 2021.