Taipei, March 11 (CNA) The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) has agreed to pay NT$600,000 (US$19,558) and NT$500,000 under the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) to two women in their 40s who suffered adverse reactions to the AstraZeneca vaccination shots for COVID-19.
According to Central Epidemic Command Center spokesperson Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) on Saturday, only 19 applicants qualified for payouts in the latest review by the ministry's VICP.
AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine was the first to be administered in Taiwan, and 15 of the 19 approved cases this time happened to be linked to this brand, Lo said.
Concerning the two women, one was from Taoyuan and the other from Taichung, and both had developed symptoms of fever, headache, difficulty breathing and bleeding gums just days after having received a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
They were later diagnosed as having thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), and further tests led health authorities to determine that the cause was linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
TTS is a documented clinical side effect of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine.
The VICP panel convened on Feb. 23 to review 122 recently filed cases involving individuals seeking compensation because of side effects from taking COVID-19 vaccines and decided that claims in 19 cases were valid.
Meetings are regularly held under the program to determine if individuals should receive compensation for serious side effects from vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, even if no direct link between the vaccine and side effects can be definitively established.
