COVID: Singapore says death of man in 2021 is first tied to vaccine
By Elffie Chew
(Bloomberg) — Singapore recorded its first fatality linked to the COVID-19 vaccine after the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced that the death of a 28-year-old Bangladeshi man in 2021 was likely due to the jab.
The man’s death 21 days after his COVID-19 vaccination was a medical misadventure, MOH said in a statement Friday. “The cause of death was certified as myocarditis. The State Coroner also found that on the balance of probabilities, it was likely to be related to COVID-19 vaccination.”
The ministry said the man died on July 9, 2021, after collapsing at his workplace earlier that day. He received his first dose of the Moderna-Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine on June 18 that year.
Under the ministry’s Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance Programme, a one-time payment of S$225,000 ($168,000) will be extended to his family, according to the statement.
To date, more than 17 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the city-state, MOH said. The incidence of myocarditis remains “rare,” with rates of 0.1 per 100,000 doses for the bivalent vaccines and 1.1 per 100,000 doses for the primary vaccination series of the monovalent vaccines, the ministry said.
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