2 People now confirmed dead shortly after receiving Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine

January 8 update: At least 10 people now confirmed dead shortly after receiving Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

Just as the European Union started to roll out the jabs of Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine on an emergency-use basis, authorities in the Swiss Canton of Lucerne, Switzerland announced today that one of the first people to receive the Pfizer vaccine has died, according to a report from Reuters. At this point, authorities do not know if his death is directly related to the inoculation he received. The gender of the person was not revealed.

The Swiss announcement makes it the second reported vaccine-related death after an Israeli man died Monday morning from a heart attack about 2 hours after receiving the Pfizer vaccine. According to a report from the Israeli newspaper, a 75-year-old man from Beit Shean, Israel died Monday morning from cardiac arrest, about 2 hours after receiving the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. The man received the vaccine at 8:30 in the morning and waited for the customary time at the health clinic before he was released to his home feeling well.

A couple of hours later, the man lost consciousness and was later confirmed dead from heart failure. The Israeli Health Ministry said, “A 75-year-old man from the north of the country suffering from active heart disease and malignant disease, who has undergone a number of heart attacks, was vaccinated this morning against the coronavirus and died at home shortly after the procedure.”

Meanwhile, Swiss authorities in Canton have yet to release any additional details about the exact amount of time that passed between the inoculation and the man’s death. Lucerne was the site of the first vaccinations in Switzerland beginning last week, with a shot from Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech given primarily to elderly people.

So far, Switzerland has received 107,000 vaccine doses and expects to get 250,000 per month starting next year. Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine is the only vaccine approved, Reuters said. “We are aware of the case,” a spokesperson said, before adding that the death had been referred to Swiss drugs regulator Swissmedic said with no additional comment.

Here in the United States, so far, over 2 million people have received the Pfizer vaccine for the coronavirus with no single death reported, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).