Written By: Satata Karmakar | Updated : August 30, 2021 10:56 AM IST
Image credits by: 2 Die In Japan After Receiving Suspended Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine Shots
In a shocking incident, two men died after they received two shots of Moderna Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccine, the Japanese Health Ministry confirmed on Sunday. Speaking to the media, the Ministry said on Saturday that the two men aged 30 and 38 died within days of receiving the second jab, and no foreign matter was found in either of the vials of vaccine used on the two men.
According to the reports, following the incident, Japan's Okinawa region has temporarily suspended the use Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine. "We are suspending the use of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccines as foreign substances were spotted in some of them," the officials said in a statement.
The ministry has initiated an investigation into the matter. "It remains unknown whether there is a causal relationship between the vaccination and their deaths," the Ministry said, adding that neither of them had an underlying medical condition or a history of allergic reactions.
This comes days after the Ministry asserted that foreign substances have been found in 39 unused vials at eight vaccination sites in five prefectures. The same day, about 1.63 million doses that came from the same production line of a Spanish factory were suspended to use as a precaution. However, more than 500,000 shots have already been administered from the potentially contaminated batches, said Taro Kono, the Minister in charge of the vaccination effort.
Although the foreign substances had been confirmed since August 16, the Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., which is in charge of the sale and distribution of the Moderna vaccine in Japan, waited until August 25 to report the problem to the ministry. Moderna and Takeda said in a joint statement on Saturday that they were working with the Health Ministry to investigate the two deaths. The two companies said that at this time, they did not find any evidence that these deaths were caused by the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine.
(With inputs from IANS)
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