The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said it would record the death of a 85-year-old woman in Tainan that occurred one day after she received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine as a suspected adverse reaction case.
The woman was found dead yesterday morning after she received her first dose of the vaccine on Friday, the center said, adding that it is the first death reported in Taiwan in someone who was inoculated with the Moderna jab.
The eligibility for the jab was on Thursday expanded to vaccination priority groups 4 to 8, including people aged 65 or older.
Photo courtesy of the Central Epidemic Command Center
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is CECC spokesman, said that the Tainan Public Health Bureau informed the center about the case, which has not yet been reported as a suspected adverse reaction.
The center would help the woman’s family file the report, Chuang said, adding that local health authorities had performed a postmortem examination while an autopsy request is pending with her family.
As of 4pm on Thursday, 157,289 people had received a dose of the Moderna vaccine and 57 adverse events have been reported — including 31 non-serious events, two serious allergic reactions and 24 serious adverse events, CECC data showed.
Chuang said that common side effects that occur in more than one in 10 people include pain or swelling at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle ache, chills, joint ache, fever, swollen lymph nodes, nausea and vomiting.
Other common side effects that occur in one to 10 in 100 people include redness at the injection site and a rash, while one to 10 in 1,000 people report itchiness at the injection site and one to 10 in 10,000 people report rare side effects such as facial palsy and swelling, Chuang said.
People should stay at the vaccination site for at least 15 minutes after receiving the jab, and at least 30 minutes if they have previously experienced an allergic reaction to a vaccination or any other injection, he added.
The Centers for Disease Control’s Taiwan V-Watch online vaccination follow-up platform has recorded pain at the injection site, fatigue and muscle ache as the most common side effects to COVID-19 vaccines by Moderna and AstraZeneca, he said.
Among those registered with the platform who received the AstraZeneca jab, 26.9 percent reported a fever after the first dose and 3 percent after the second, while 3 percent of recipients of the Moderna jab reported a fever, he said, adding that most of the reported side effects eased within seven days after vaccination.
The percentage of people aged 18 to 49 who reported side effects was higher than in other age brackets, Chuang added.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to