- A woman was accidentally given six shots worth of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine when the health worker mistakenly filled one syringe with an entire bottle.
- The whole bottle contained a total of six doses, which were meant for six syringes.
- The woman had to be monitored in the hospital for possible side effects and has since been released.
A health worker mistakenly administered six shots worth of COVID-19 vaccine to a woman at the Noa hospital in Tuscany, central Italy, on Sunday.
The health worker made the mistake when she filled a syringe with the entire bottle of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. The bottle contained a total of six doses, meant for six syringes.
She only realized her mistake when she saw the other five empty syringes, hospital spokeswoman Daniella Gianelli told CNN on Monday.
Fortunately, the patient had no underlying conditions and was in “good health,” but she had to be confined to the hospital for 24 hours so she can be strictly monitored for any adverse reactions. She has since been discharged on Monday.
Gianelli said that the patient will still be monitored for her immune response to the “massive dose of vaccine.”
The spokeswoman said that the hospital has opened an internal investigation, and suggested that the incident was “maybe just human error, definitively not on purpose.”
The 23-year-old patient, who was an intern in the hospital’s psychology department, was allowed to be vaccinated before other people in her age group due to the nature of her work.
All healthcare and pharmacy workers were required to be vaccinated according to a decree established by the Italian government in April.
Any healthcare worker who refuses to get the vaccine will be reassigned, if possible, to roles that do not involve contact with patients. If a reassignment is not possible, they will face suspension without pay.
The decree’s constitutionality has been questioned by some critics who think that there may be legal cases regarding this in the future.
Italy has recently been seeing a decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases, following months of one of the highest infection rates in Europe.
Source: CNN
