Co-convenor of Hong Kong's Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following COVID-19 Immunization Ivan Hung (center) at a press conference in Hong Kong, south China on March 3, 2021. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

HONG KONG - The seven deaths following COVID-19 vaccination in Hong Kong were preliminarily considered not directly related to the jabs, medical experts said on Monday.

Hong Kong's Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following COVID-19 Immunization convened a meeting on Monday to assess a number of suspected serious adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination recently

Hong Kong's Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following COVID-19 Immunization convened a meeting on Monday to assess a number of suspected serious adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination recently.

Ivan Hung, a co-convenor of the committee, told a press briefing that based on the preliminary autopsy or assessment by the expert committee, the main cause of death in the seven cases was cardiovascular problems, not directly related to vaccination.

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As for the case in critical condition, the 51-year-old man involved has history of diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia. He was admitted to the intensive care unit of a hospital five days after being vaccinated. The provisional diagnosis was acute myocardial infarction. The expert committee preliminary considered that the patient's outcome was not directly associated with COVID-19 vaccination either, Hung said.

There were also two other patients suspected of experiencing facial paralysis after vaccination, involving a 69-year-old man who has been discharged from hospital and a 57-year-old man who remains hospitalized because of diabetes. For the time being, the committee was unable to establish a causal link between the two cases and the vaccination.

Hung said that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the world. In 2020, the provisional number of hospital admission due to myocardial infarction was about 7,300 cases in Hong Kong. According to the mortality rates in Hong Kong, there were on average 16.7 persons passed away every day due to ischemic heart diseases and other heart diseases in 2019.

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Hung said that the expert committee had reviewed the number of death cases reported after the commencement of the vaccination program and the death rates of the similar group in the same period of previous year, and no unusual pattern has been identified so far. Moreover, the existing available information of the reported cases also does not show any causal relationship with the vaccines.

According to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, about 206,000 people have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine since the vaccination program began on Feb 26 in Hong Kong.