A national committee on immunization practices will decide how to handle the issue of COVID-19 vaccine overdose, which occurred Monday when a Taiwan hospital inadvertently administered undiluted shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to 25 people, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Wednesday.
At a CECC press briefing, CECC advisor Chang Shan-Chwen (???) said the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will first examine how similar incidents were handled in other countries.
The committee will then decide whether the 25 people in Taiwan should be given a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and if so, when it should be administered, Chang said.
On Monday, the 25 people were inadvertently given undiluted doses of the vaccine, which was five times the regular dosage, according to the CECC.
A Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine vial contains 0.45 milliliters of vaccine concentrate, which requires dilution with 1.8 ml of preservative-free 0.9 percent sodium chloride injection. One dose equals 0.3 ml of the diluted content.
The undiluted shots were administered by medical staff from En Chu Kong Hospital in New Taipei, at a vaccination site at Yongfu Temple Activity Center in the city's Yingge District, the CECC said.
City health officials said Wednesday that the recipients, who range in age from 18 to 65, all remained in good health.
Ten of them are currently under observation at En Chu Kong Hospital, while the health of the other 15 individuals is being monitored daily by the hospital via telephone, the health officials said.
According to the vice superintendent of En Chu Kong Hospital, Wang Chung-cheng (???), the medical workers at the vaccination site mistakenly thought that the vaccine had already been diluted because the caps had fallen off the vials.
As a result of the error, the hospital has been ordered to stop administering COVID-19 vaccines for a week, and Far Eastern Memorial Hospital is now managing the vaccination site at Yongfu Temple Activity Center.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel