Five deaths of "
elderly or very old people with comorbidities
", who had received an injection of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, have been identified in France to date, without a link being established at this stage between their death and a reaction. vaccine, health authorities said.
Read also: Covid-19: nearly 500,000 vaccinations planned this week
“
At the national level, we recorded 139 cases of adverse effects and five deaths were recorded by the regional pharmacovigilance centers
” of Tours, Nancy and Montpellier, indicated the Ministry of Solidarity and Health, while nearly 500,000 doses vaccine have been injected in France since December 27.
“
In view of the information available to us to date, there is nothing to conclude that the deaths reported are linked to vaccination.
All occurred in elderly patients in nursing homes,
”added the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) a little later.
"
In all cases, they are elderly or very old with comorbidities,
" added the source to the ministry.
This was confirmed by the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, during a visit to a vaccination center in Nancy.
"
These are people who may have died in the days following the vaccination without showing signs of an allergic reaction
" after the injection, he said.
For its part, the ANSM specifies that "
outside the context of the Covid-19 epidemic
", 465 residents
of nursing homes
or long-term care units (USLDs) in hospitals die every day, and more than 1000 are hospitalized daily, according to a "
first work
" covering the years 2018-2019 to have elements of comparison.
"
The deployment and scaling up of the campaign increases every day, in this population, the probability of seeing deaths occurring after vaccination against COVID, even in the absence of any effect of the vaccine,
" concludes the drug agency , specifying that a report will be published every week.
According to the French Ministry of Health, "
to date, we have 71 observations of death
" at European level.
On Monday, health authorities in Norway stressed that there was no established link between the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and the deaths of 13 elderly people who received a first injection of the product.
"
No case of death among the elderly has been attributed at this stage to vaccination with Comirnaty,
" its trade name, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Monday.