A California resident who tested positive for COVID-19 in late December died just hours after receiving an injection of the vaccine last week, officials have announced.
The person, who has not been named by name, reportedly died Thursday in Placer County, in the greater Sacramento area.
Their deaths were announced by the Placer County Police Department in a Facebook post on Saturday, with the department adding that the incident is still under investigation.
“ The person was given a COVID-19 vaccine just 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 or Pfizer vaccine.
“There are multiple local, state, and federal agencies actively investigating this matter; any reports of 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 deaths were announced by the Placer County Police Department in a Facebook post on Saturday, with the department adding that the incident is still under investigation.
Officials from the Placer County Coroner’s Office will perform an autopsy Monday to determine the person’s specific cause of death.
The authorities have not shared any further details.
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 work with our government partners to investigate the cause.
‘We work together and will continue to use data and science to determine how we should proceed.’
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is keeping an eye on reports of allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine, but health officials say the risk of a serious reaction is “ extremely rare. ”
Last week, California state epidemiologist Dr. Erica S. Pan advised suppliers to discontinue administration of one batch of the Moderna vaccine “with extreme caution” after it caused an allergic reaction in fewer than 10 people.
“While no vaccine or medical procedure is without risk, the risk of a serious side effect is very small,” wrote the California Department of Health.
“While there is less data on side effects associated with the Moderna vaccine, a similar vaccine shows the expected rate of anaphylaxis to be about 1 in 100,000.”
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is monitoring reports of allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine, but health officials say the risk of a serious reaction is ‘extremely rare’ (photo on file)
The vaccines are known to have some side effects, including fatigue, headache, chills, and fever, but these are “ normal signs that your body is building protection, ” and should go away in a few days, the CDC said.
Speaking of the person’s death in Placer County, Dr. Dean Blumberg, an infectious disease expert at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, told KTLA that people shouldn’t be too quick to blame.
“A lot of people are going to make the connection with the vaccine because of the timing,” he said. ‘[My] first tendency is that it is probably unrelated to the vaccine.
“We know that the severe allergic reactions that occur after immunization, the vast majority of them occur 15-30 minutes after immunization,” said Blumberg.
He added that if the death occurred a few hours after receiving the vaccine, it “probably isn’t the serious allergic reaction, anaphylaxis, that we’re concerned about.”
The country’s foremost infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, recommends that people who have tested positive for the virus do not get tested until at least 90 days after their date of first infection.
In California, nearly 5 million vaccine doses have been distributed and administered 2,008,220 (photo: farm workers receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Tudor Ranch in Mecca, California on Jan. 21.
On Sunday morning, 41,411,550 vaccine doses were distributed and 20,537,990 administered nationwide. In total, just over three million people have been fully vaccinated after receiving both doses of the injection.
In California, nearly 5 million doses have been distributed and delivered 2,008,220.
While vaccination efforts are underway, the virus continues to plague the state.
About 423 Californians have died from the coronavirus every day in the past month, data from Johns Hopkins University shows.
The state has recorded 36,405 deaths and more than 3.1 million cases since the pandemic started in March.
Across the US, 24,995,420 cases of the virus have been reported and 414,441 Americans have died.