A California resident who tested positive for COVID-19 in late December died a few hours last week after receiving a vaccine, officials said.
The individual, who was not named, died on Thursday in Placer County, in the greater Sacramento area.
Their death was announced by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office in a Facebook post on Saturday, the department adding that the incident remains under investigation.
“The individual was given a COVID-19 vaccine a few hours before his death, on January 21, 2021,” the agency wrote. The vaccine was not administered by Placer County Public Health.
It is unclear whether the person received the Moderna of Pfizer vaccine.
“There are several local, state and federal agencies that are actively investigating this case; all reports of the cause of death are premature, pending the outcome of the investigation. Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased ‘, the sheriff’s office continued.
Their death was announced by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office in a Facebook post on Saturday, the department adding that the incident remains under investigation.
Officials at the Placer County coroner’s office will perform an autopsy on Monday to determine the specific cause of death.
No other details were shared by the authorities.
In a statement, the California Department of Health said: “Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased. We take these cases seriously, which is why we are working with our government partners to investigate the case.
“We are working collaboratively and will continue to use data and science to determine how to proceed.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monitors reports of allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine, but health officials say the risk of a severe reaction is “extremely rare.”
Last week, California epidemiologist Erica S. Pan advised suppliers to stop taking a batch of Moderna vaccine “out of extreme caution,” after causing an allergic reaction in less than ten people.
“Although no vaccine or medical procedure is risky, the risk of a serious side effect is very low,” the California Department of Health wrote.
“Although there are fewer data on side effects related to the Moderna vaccine, a similar vaccine shows that the expected rate of anaphylaxis is about 1 in 100,000.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monitors reports of allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine, but health officials say the risk of a severe reaction is “extremely rare” (photo in file)
Vaccines are known to have some side effects, which include fatigue, headaches, chills and fever, but these are “normal signs that your body is protecting” and should disappear within a few days, the CDC said.
Speaking about the death of the person from Placer County, Dr. Dean Blumberg, an infectious disease expert at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, said that KTLA people should not be too quick to blame.
“A lot of people will get in touch with the vaccine because of the moment,” he said. ‘[My] The first inclination is that it probably has nothing to do with the vaccine.
“We know that severe allergic reactions that occur after immunization, the vast majority of which occur 15-30 minutes after immunization,” said Blumberg.
He added that if the death occurred a few hours after the vaccine, “it is probably not the severe allergic reaction, anaphylaxis, that we worry about.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, recommends that people who have tested positive for the virus not be tested for at least 90 days from the date of the initial infection.
In California, nearly 5 million doses of vaccine were distributed and 2,008,220 were administered (pictured: Farmers receive Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Tudor Ranch in Mecca, California on January 21)
As of Sunday morning, 41,411,550 doses of vaccine had been distributed and 20,537,990 had been administered nationwide. In all, just over three million people are fully vaccinated after receiving both doses of the shot.
In California, nearly 5 million doses were distributed and 2,008,220 were administered.
While vaccination efforts are in full swing, the state continues to be devastated by the virus.
In the last month, about 423 Californians have died every day from coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The state has recorded 36,405 deaths and more than 3.1 million cases since the pandemic began in March.
Across the United States, 24,995,420 cases of the virus have been reported and 414,441 Americans have died.