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Eight workers in nursing homes in Germany received five doses of the Covid-19 vaccine by mistake, without suffering serious ill effects so far, local authorities announced Monday.
The employees, seven women and one man between the ages of 38 and 54, work in a nursing home in the city of Stralsund, in northeastern Germany.
They are among a priority group and among the first to receive the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine, which Germany began rolling out late last week.
But while they were vaccinated Sunday, they were each injected with five doses at once, said Stephan Kirth, the facility’s district manager.
Kirth said employees were immediately informed of the error. Four of them were taken to hospital for medical observation after showing mild flu-like symptoms, while the others were sent home.
“I am deeply sorry for this incident,” Kirth said, adding that the error was an isolated case and related to human error.
He continued: “I hope that not all the injured suffer serious side effects.”
Before launching vaccination campaigns in several European countries at the end of the week, the German company Biontech said that during the trials larger than usual doses were injected without serious side effects in the volunteers.
The vaccine takes less than a year to administer and is designed to be given as two injections, in vials of five doses each once diluted.
However, a spokeswoman for the Health Ministry said Monday that each vial can be used to administer up to six doses.
