KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — The death of a nurse in Kedah yesterday was due to cardiac arrest and not because she received a Covid-19 vaccine, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.
He told Free Malaysia Today authorities have already examined the incident and found no link to her receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on March 12.
“An investigation by the health ministry shows her death was not a side effect of the vaccine,” he was quoted as saying.
“Even if there are side effects, they would be mild.”
According to reports earlier today, the nurse was found dead at her home in Kedah by her husband.
The woman had been with the neonatal ward of Hospital Pulau Pinang and received her Covid-19 vaccine earlier this month as part of the first phase of the National Immunisation Programme.
Links were made to the vaccination after reports cited a police official as saying that the husband informed a medical officer that the nurse fell ill a day after receiving her vaccine.
As in other countries, the government is working hard to assure Malaysians that Covid-19 vaccines approved for use in the country were safe.
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin took both doses of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine publicly to help build public confidence.
Earlier today, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin received the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine and went on to issue a message in Mandarin assuring the public that this and other approved vaccines were not harmful.
