Thirty-four more people have died after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, adding that none of the autopsies performed so far have connected post-vaccination deaths to the shots.
The deaths recorded on Wednesday were 16 women and 18 men who died one to eight days after being vaccinated, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, told a daily news briefing in Taipei.
Their ages ranged from 52 to 96, with 29 of them over the age of 75, he said.
Photo: CNA
The youngest among them, a man aged 52, had been in a nursing home and had a history of hypertension, colon cancer and epilepsy, Chuang said, adding that he was also on long-term dialysis.
He received a vaccine at the nursing home in the middle of this month and was admitted to a hospital two days later after experiencing a fever and shortness of breath, Chuang said.
The man spent three days in an intensive care unit, but his condition worsened as a result of pneumonia combined with respiratory failure and septic shock, Chuang said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
He died five days after receiving the vaccination, Chuang said.
It appeared that the pneumonia led to his death, Chuang said, adding that the CECC would further look into the matter if an autopsy is performed.
Ten more autopsies on people who died after receiving COVID-19 vaccinations have been performed, bringing the total completed to 26, Chuang said.
Twenty-three of them showed the cause of death to be related to chronic health conditions, one was the result of asphyxia after choking on food and two were due to cervical fractures, he said.
Based on the autopsy results, none of the deaths appeared to have been caused by the vaccines, he added.
As of yesterday, 178 people — 87 women and 91 men — have died after receiving a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, CECC data showed.
They were aged 41 to 101, and 141 of them were older than 75, the center said.
They died up to eight days after inoculation, it added.
As of Wednesday, 1,746,130 COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered in the nation, including 1,714,268 first doses and 31,862 second doses, the CECC said.
Of them, 1,650,166 were AstraZeneca shots, while Moderna’s vaccine accounted for 95,964.
The nation’s COVID-19 vaccine coverage was 7.43 percent, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center.
The center last week advised people who have chronic diseases or feel unwell to hold off on receiving their shots until their conditions are stable.
It also advised older people to receive their vaccinations at facilities near their homes to avoid long journeys, adding that they should also avoid seeking inoculation in hot weather.
Additional reporting by Lin Hui-chin
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
RSS