New Taipei’s En Chu Kong Hospital is in hot water. It’s been ordered to stop giving COVID-19 vaccines for a week after a mishap that’s affected 25 people.
On Wednesday morning, reporters at a COVID vaccination site in New Taipei’s Yingge District noticed an unusually tense atmosphere. It’s not that local people are particularly scared of needles, though. Instead, they’re jittery because this was the site of a recent medical mishap.
The hospital that had been in charge of vaccinating people here, the nearby En Chu Kong Hospital, accidentally gave undiluted vaccine doses to 25 people who came here. The dose that these people received was five times the normal concentration. Receiving such a concentrated dose could lead to serious problems, including myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart.
The hospital says its staff thought the doses had already been diluted because the caps had fallen off the vaccine vials.
New Taipei City health authorities have stripped the hospital of its right to administer COVID vaccines for a week. They’ve also ordered the hospital to monitor the health of the 25 affected people—it will now have to admit them as patients and perform necessary tests at its own expense. In the meantime, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital is taking over vaccination duties at the site.
Fortunately, those affected all appear to be healthy. However, doctors say they might need to be under observation for up to a month, and they might have to wait more than three months before they can safely receive a second vaccine dose.