Tokyo, Japan (CNN) – Two people have died in Japan two days after receiving a batch of Govit-19 vaccines from Moderna, whose use was halted on Thursday due to concerns about the risk of contamination, the country’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said on Saturday.
According to the Ministry of Modern Medicine Distribution in Japan and the Daketa Pharmaceutical Company, the causal relationship between the vaccine and mortality has not yet been established.
As a precautionary measure, Japan stopped using 1.63 million doses of the modern vaccine on August 26, following the discovery of foreign substances in some vials.
While the Japanese government and the three pharmaceutical companies involved are conducting investigations, no police investigation has been announced and there are no current indications of wrongdoing.
“Currently, no link between these deaths and the modern vaccine has been confirmed, but we believe it is important to conduct a proper investigation to further investigate this matter,” the Daketa Pharmaceutical Company said in a statement Saturday.
The Japanese Ministry of Health will carry out the investigation in conjunction with Dakota, the company said, adding that Moderna is conducting its own investigation.
Rovi, the Spanish company that produced the packages, described the pollution as “particle material” in a statement on Thursday. Rowe said he also investigates contaminated blocks.
The 1.63 million dose came from three identified lot numbers: 3004667, 3004734 and 3004956. The dose was distributed to 863 vaccination centers across Japan, and some were used.
The Ministry of Health began announcing the risk of infection to vaccinated sites on Thursday morning.
Both of the dead received vaccines from 3004734 locations that were withdrawn from circulation on Thursday. Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has stated that no foreign contaminants have been reported from the group so far.
Daketa said the results of laboratory tests of contaminated samples will be available in the next few days.
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File photo. On June 14, 2021, flight attendants at Japan Airlines at Haneda Airport were given a dose of Moderna’s Govt-19 vaccine. (Credit: (AB Photo / Eugene Hoshiko)
What do you know about contamination in vaccines?
Japan’s Kunma province on Sunday announced the discovery of foreign substances in Moderna’s Govt-19 vaccine, a provincial official told CNN.
Black foreign matter less than 0.5 millimeters in size was found during a vaccine test in a vial with a different volume number than three volumes due to the risk of contamination on August 26, another black and pink material in Okinawa on Saturday, the official said.
About 4,500 people were shot dead on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Kunma. However, the Kunma provincial official told CNN that no adverse reactions were reported.
The official said that at 11 a.m. Japanese local time, the vaccine was discontinued from the block where the foreign material was found, and that Japan was delivering the vaccine from another moderna block number in the afternoon local time.
“We are cooperating with the Japanese Ministry of Health and the manufacturer and are awaiting information on what the foreign matter is. Also, since the foreign matter was found in only one vial, we are waiting for instructions on what to do with the remaining vials.” The officer said.
Over the weekend, Okinawa suspended vaccinations at a mass vaccination site in Naha, finding one bottle filled with contaminants and three syringes filled with vaccines from three different vials. Japan’s health ministry said in a statement on Sunday that rubber pieces may have fallen into the bottles when the rubber cap was punctured. He added that no major problems were found with the quality of the vaccine.
As of August 26, 44% of Japan’s population has been fully vaccinated.
