Botswana probes possible vaccine-related deaths

Two elderly people are reported to have died around the time they were vaccinated with the Covishield vaccine.

RUSTENBURG, April 12 (ANA) – Botswana has begun investigating two deaths possibly linked to a Covid-19 vaccine.

In a statement on Monday, the director of health services Dr Malebogo Kebabonye said two elderly people were reported to have died around the time they were vaccinated with the Covishield vaccine in the Greater Palapye and Greater Gaborone Covid-19 zones.

“As process requires in such circumstances, the ministry has referred the matter to the regulator being the Botswana Medicines Regulatory Authority for immediate investigation,” Kebabonye said.

She said the Botswana Medicines Regulatory Authority would investigate the cause of death, as well as whether they were in any way linked to the vaccine which was administered, adding that this would be attended to speedily.

She called for calm and advised the public to follow appropriate guidelines on vaccines. This included considering delaying the vaccination of patients who may be recovering from a recent severe illness.

She said as of April 10, the country had vaccinated 31,628 people in seven districts.

Botswana received 30,000 Covishield doses as a donation from India in March.

The country has so far recorded 42,674 cases of Covid-19, with 616 deaths and 38,203 recoveries.

Meanwhile, Malawi was on Monday racing against time to administer about 40,000 doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine set to expire on Tuesday.

According to Malawi media reports, the south-eastern African country has scaled up the vaccine administration in order to beat the expiry date of April 13.

The expiring doses were part of the 102,000 doses received from the African Union (AU).

– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher