German Care Home Workers Accidentally Given 5 Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine at Once
In a major blunder, authorities in Germany accidentally gave five doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine at once to eight care home workers.
Berlin, December 28: In a major blunder, authorities in Germany accidentally gave five doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine at once to eight care home workers. The incident took place at a retirement home in Germany's Stralsund town on Sunday. Fortunately, none of the care home workers developed any serious illness. However, four of them were admitted to hospital for observation with mild flu-like symptoms. Germany Opposes Easing COVID-19 Restrictions for Vaccinated People.
The seven women and one man, aged between 38 and 54, were in a priority group to get vaccinated against coronavirus because they are employees of the retirement home. As Germany rolled out the COVID-19 vaccine, developed by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in collaboration with German biotech company BioNTech, the eight workers were among the first to have received the shots. German Pilot Maps Syringe in Sky to Mark COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout.
They were each injected with five doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at once. "I deeply regret this incident," Stefan Kerth, the administrator of the district where the care centre is located, was quoted by news agency AFP as saying. "I hope all those affected suffer no serious side effects," he also said, adding that the mistake was an isolated case and down to human error.
Germany launched its mass COVID-19 vaccination on Sunday, and the first batch of vaccines in the country is being given to people over 80 years in nursing homes, and those frontline medical and nursing staff. The country is expected to receive between 3 and 4 million doses of the vaccine by the end of January next year.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 28, 2020 11:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).