The Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following COVID-19 Immunisation convened a meeting today to assess death cases relating to COVID-19 vaccination.

Between April 19 and May 2, the Department of Health received eight death reports with history of COVID-19 immunisation from the Hospital Authority and another Coroner’s case handled by the public mortuary.

These cases involved five men and four women aged from 43 to 76.

The committee assessed the nine death cases in today's meeting.

Four cases had a history of COVID-19 vaccination more than 14 days before they passed away and the committee concluded that two of them had no causal relationship with COVID-19 vaccination based on the assessment and diagnosis made by the attending doctors, and preliminarily considered that the other two were not associated with vaccination.

For the other five cases with history of vaccination within 14 days, the committee preliminarily considered them not associated with COVID-19 vaccination based on clinical information and preliminary autopsy findings.

In addition, the committee also concluded the causality assessment of two previous cases.

The first case, announced on March 7, involved an 80-year-old man who passed away on March 13.

The full autopsy report indicated that the cause of death was acute myocardial infarction and ischaemic bowel, other investigation results did not reveal any possible immunological reactions due to a vaccine.

Based on the World Health Organization's algorithm, the committee concluded that there was no causal relationship between the deceased person's outcome and COVID-19 vaccination.

The second case, announced on April 21, involved a 72-year-old man who passed away on April 16.

Attending doctors considered the causes of death were haemodialysis catheter related sepsis and hyperkalaemia, and no clinical reason to suspect association with a vaccine.

The committee concluded that there was no causal relationship between the deceased person’s outcome and COVID-19 vaccination.

Between April 19 and May 2, the Department of Health received 16 reports of suspected Bell's palsy with history of COVID-19 vaccination.

These cases involved 10 men and six women aged between 20 and 87. Seven of these cases had received the Sinovac vaccine and nine received the BioNTech one.

The committee reviewed the available clinical data of these cases and considered that three of them required further clinical information before the assessment could be concluded.