Australia will still roll out Covid vaccine despite 13 deaths

Earlier, the Norwegian Medicine Agency reported that More than 80 elderly people died after vaccination With Pfizer / BioNTech Vaccine. All were already seriously ill, it said.

The medical regulator said fever and nausea were common reactions to the coronavirus vaccine and these conditions could have contributed to their death.

As of Monday, France has confirmed almost 2,970,000 COVID-19 infections with the death toll at 70,422.

Also, the Norwegian Medicines Agency had communicated, prior to the vaccination, that when administering the shot to the oldest and sickest, it is expected that deaths will occur in a time-related context with vaccination.

Galvez said that upon hearing the news, he reached out to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III about their plan for administering the vaccine to senior citizens in the Philippines.

According to the agency, "all deaths" are linked to the Pfizer vaccine, which was the only one available in the country until Friday.

France Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Monday that his country to reach its target of vaccinating 1 million people against COVID-19 by the end of January and has enough doses to increase the total to 2.4 million by the end of February.

Australia, which has an agreement for 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, is seeking urgent information on the issue from the producer, health authorities and Norway's government, Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.

"We are closely monitoring this situation as well as the results of the vaccine rollout out in other countries, including reported reactions and the overall safety profile of the vaccine".

He said he had been "closely following" the side effect profiles of all the coronavirus vaccines now being rolled out globally.

So when there's news of a potential problem - like the deaths of frail, elderly people in Norway - how do we make sense of it?

Dr Grenfell said vaccine deaths can occur in phase four studies of drug trials, which essentially is where the coronavirus vaccines are at. The agency found that "the number of incidents so far is not alarming, and in line with expectations", Pfizer said.

Health officials have raised questions about whether these people should take a second dose of the vaccine, but the Ministry of Health recommends its administration. "The NRPA (National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency) is also getting detailed information from Pfizer (M) Sdn Bhd and monitoring what the European Medicines Agency are doing about the latest developments", Dr Adham said in a statement today.

The United Kingdom and the United States have also reported a number of cases of side effects that had fatal consequences.