Akhaltsikhe nurse allegedly develops anaphylactic reaction after to Covid jab
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Friday, March 19
A nurse in Akhaltsikhe allegedly developed a anaphylactic reaction after receiving the Covid vaccine on March 18. The director of the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health of Georgia (NCDC) Amiran Gamkrelidze talked about the incident noting that the 27-year-old nurse had previously received routine flu shots with no complications.
“We’re not yet sure if this was an allergic or other type of reaction, but according to the initial information from doctors, it seemed like an anaphylactic reaction,” said Gamkrelidze.
The nurse developed the reaction 30 minutes after getting the jab and went into a coma. Before getting sick, she talked with journalists about the importance of getting inoculated and informing the population that the vaccine is harmless.
Following the accident, the Deputy Minister of Health and the NCDC Director noted that the reaction could be a possible side effect of the vaccine, although research is underway to verify this. According to them, the nurse had to be transferred to an intensive care unit in Tbilisi.
The Deputy Health Minister also noted that the AstraZeneca vaccine that Georgia uses is known to have such side effect – according to the British data, out of 5 million inoculations, 41 people developed anaphylactic side effects. She added that the risk associated with the vaccine is minimal compared to the benefits of the vaccine.
Later yesterday, relevant officials held a meeting to discuss the accident and the future of the immunization program in Georgia. After the meeting, Health Minister Ekaterine Tikaradze announced that the process will continue as planned using the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili also got the vaccine yesterday. She received the jab publicly and addressed the population, speaking on the importance of being vaccinated. “If we want to get out of the dire economic situation that followed the global Covid pandemic, it is important to use the opportunity given to us,” she noted.
Georgia received the first 43,200 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on March 13. The immunization process started on March 15 with the healthcare professionals receiving the jab first. As of March 18, 3054 of them have been inoculated. There are over 71 thousand healthcare workers in the country. The Health Ministry estimates that 46 thousand of them will be immunized.
