Vaccinated health worker died of COVID-19, not from receiving jab — officials

MANILA, Philippines — Authorities on Wednesday said a health worker who received a COVID-19 vaccine and later died succumbed to the virus and not from receiving the jab.

The health department and the Food and Drug Administration confirmed that a vaccinated medical personnel died on Monday, March 15.

Authorities have yet to make more details about the case public. There is still the question of what brand of vaccine was administered to the individual — the vaccination program currently only uses Sinovac and AstraZeneca, the jabs that the country has supplies of so far.

The Department of Health, however, said it its regional and national Adverse Effects Following Immunization committees have looked into the incident and concluded that the death was "by COVID-19 itself, not by the COVID-19 vaccine."

"COVID-19 vaccines cannot cause COVID-19," the agencies' joint statement said.

The health department said FDA chief Eric Domingo will hold a briefing on Thursday morning for more details on the case.

Officials stressed that vaccination is only one part of ending the pandemic and that people should still follow health protocols.

They also appealed for more health workers to be vaccinated as soon as possible, especially with a new surge in infections already ongoing.

"Millions of people around the world have received this vaccine," the agencies said, "and evidence continues to show that the benefit of vaccination outweights the risk of severe disease and death caused by COVID-19."

Government data showed that nearly 216,000 Filipinos have been vaccinated across 929 sites by middle of March, the month when the delayed inoculations efforts finally began.

The country is also expecting 2.3 million doses of Sinovac and AstraZeneca combined by April, as part of donations from Beijing and under the World Health Organization-led COVAX facility.