A 39-year-old British woman being treated in Nicosia General hospital’s ICU following a blood clotting incident, has died, news reports said Monday.
The Cyprus health authorities were looking into whether it could be linked to AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The woman had received the first dose of the vaccine two weeks ago in Paphos, on May 6. She reportedly had the first symptoms on May 18.
Meanwhile, health officials said on Sunday that another case of a blood clotting incident was being treated, also at Nicosia General.
The 40 year old woman in the second case had been tested during her surgery preparation and is reportedly in good clinical health. Officials were also investigating whether this case was linked to the AstraZeneca vaccination.
In earlier comments, the acting head of the pharmaceutical services, Elena Panayiotopoulou, said another three cases of blood clots are being investigated, two of which occurred after an AstraZeneca shot and one after a Pfizer jab.
Panayiotopoulou said the people involved in the other three cases had mild blood clotting incidents and have since made a full recovery.
Benefits outweigh risks
She argued that the benefits still outweigh the risks and urged people to continue getting vaccinated to protect the population against the virus and possible variants.
“To date, 181 reports of possible adverse reactions have been reported.
“Of these, 141 were mild to moderate. Injection site pain, fever, myalgia, arthralgia, chills. That is, the usual side effects, which are not something to worry about,” argued Panayiotopoulou.
She added that 40 cases reported had more severe reactions but have all made a full recovery.
Panayiotopoulou also clarified that if no serious side effects are observed with the administration of the vaccine’s first dose, it is even rarer after the second dose.
“For this reason, we urge people who have not experienced serious side effects to proceed with the administration of the second dose.
“However, if someone showed side effects, then they should contact the pharmaceutical services.”
People who believe that they may be having adverse reactions to a vaccine can call 22608607.
