Vials of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. — AFP/VNA Photo

HÀ NỘI — The cause of death of an 82-year-old man in the central province of Nghệ An after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine was not due to vaccine quality or inoculation procedures, local health authorities have announced.

On Tuesday afternoon, the professional council for serious complications during COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Nghệ An Province, led by the provincial health department’s director Dương Đình Chính, held a meeting on the death of the elderly man on September 19 in Long Xá Commune, Hưng Nguyên District.

On the day, L.H.Y., underwent body temperature checks and medical screening, and he was deemed fit to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

However, just 30 minutes after the shot, he developed symptoms of a stroke. The health workers performed first aid and transported him to Nghệ An Friendship General Hospital in Vinh City, but he didn’t survive.

At the meeting, after deliberating on reports from the vaccination site at Long Xá Commune and the emergency unit in charge of treating the man, as well as opinions from the council’s experts and the province’s epidemiologists, the council determined that the cause of death was a massive intraventricular haemorrhage – considered the most fatal form of stroke – due to hypertension, after receiving the first shot of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

It also noted that the quality of the vaccine or the administration procedures had nothing to do with this incident.

Dương Đình Chính said it's coincidental and the man's death was not vaccine-related. Knowing his own conditions, Y. had taken medicines before vaccination to keep his blood pressure in check, according to Chính. — VNS