The Indemnity Fund for Adverse Events Following Immunization with COVID-19 Vaccines has approved three cases, totalling $450,000.

The fund was set up to provide financial support to eligible individuals who have suffered unexpected serious adverse events associated with a COVID-19 vaccine.

As at June 10, 74 applications for the fund were received.

Three injury case applications involving anaphylaxis, hospitalisation and Bell’s palsy have been approved.

The Government noted that all cases that have gone through severity assessment so far, no matter whether payout is approved, do not involve long term or permanent damage.

The Department of Health said in the preceding week ending June 13, it received 149 reports of adverse events following COVID-19 immunisation.

Among them, no death case was reported by the Hospital Authority involving individuals who had received vaccines within 14 days before they passed away and had potential association with vaccination.

As at 8pm on June 13, over 2.93 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered to the public.

The department received 3,605 reports of adverse events, 21 of which are death cases with vaccination within 14 days. The figures represented 0.12% and 0.0007% of the total vaccine doses administered.

None of the death cases were associated with vaccination, the department added.

As at June 13, the Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following COVID-19 Immunisation concluded that six death cases had no causal relationship with vaccination and preliminarily considered that 15 cases were not associated with vaccination.

The expert committee considered that there is no unusual pattern identified so far, and will continue to closely monitor the situation and collect data for assessment.

According to information from the authority, during the period from May 17 to June 13, the ratio of death cases out of those without a vaccination record was 58.1 cases for every 100,000 people, whereas the ratio of death cases for those with a vaccination record was 2.8 cases for every 100,000 people. The overall death rate is similar to that recorded in the past three years.

Out of those without a vaccination record, the ratio of death cases with acute stroke or acute myocardial infarction was 2.9 cases for every 100,000 people, whereas the ratio of death cases under the same category for those with a vaccination record was 0.2 cases for every 100,000 people.

Furthermore, the ratio of miscarriage cases out of those without a vaccination record was 25.5 cases for every 100,000 people, whereas the ratio of miscarriage cases for those who had a vaccination record was five cases for every 100,000 people.

Based on the statistical analysis of the above figures, there is no evidence that vaccination increases the risk of death or miscarriage for recipients.

The relevant reference statistics will be uploaded to the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme thematic website.

The majority of non-death cases of adverse events received so far are relatively minor ones, details of which can be found here.