The Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) released a joint statement revealing that a 16-year-old boy was “erroneously” given the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine instead of the authorised Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for those under 18.
The ministries apologised for the error and said that they take this error seriously.
Their joint statement reads:
“We apologise for the inconvenience and anxiety caused, and have reached out to the youth’s parents to explain the situation.”
How it happened?
The mistake arose from the wrong date of birth registration, the statement explained:
“Our investigations found that the individual’s date of birth had been erroneously entered when booking a vaccination appointment after receiving the sign-up link.”
“This resulted in his age being incorrectly registered as above 18 years of age, making it possible for a Moderna vaccination centre to be selected.”
During registration, the vaccination centre staff also failed to verify his age.
The boy was then later identified to be under 18 during the observation period after the vaccination, and that was when the error was discovered.
He was then placed under longer observation (50 minutes) as a form of additional precaution.
He was revealed to be “generally well.”
No problem
The Covid-19 expert committee said in a separate statement that they do not expect any safety issues for the boy; and the medical team will also consult the expert committee on what would be the best step for the youth to complete his vaccination.
They added:
“Data from a involving more than 3,700 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years old has found that the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective among adolescents with no significant safety issues identified. The majority of adverse events were mild or moderate in severity, and the common ones were injection site pain, headache, fatigue, muscle aches and chills.”
Images source: MOE and Unsplash