Medical professional received 5-6 doses of COVID vaccine in one shot

He was hospitalized for monitoring and after it was confirmed that he was unharmed, he was released on Monday morning to his home. The medical professional is feeling well and even wants to return to work, according to Maccabi. The HMO stressed that this was an isolated incident.According to Maccabi, tests conducted by Pfizer show that there are no negative effects of receiving up to five doses of the vaccine, except for side effects at the site of injection. The medical professional did not experience any side effects except for slight sensitivity at the site of the injection.

The Health Ministry is investigating the incident and has released clearer guidelines for medical staff, stressing that “care must be taken throughout the process,” according to Channel 12.

In general, people are supposed to receive one dose of the vaccine and then another dose 21 days later. The medical staff member instead received an entire, undiluted bottle of the vaccine in one shot.

In a message to professional teams in the field, the Health Ministry stated that “an error resulting from the splitting of the dilution process and the injection stage,” according to Channel 12. The ministry recommends that one nurse perform both the dilution and injection.

“Do not prepare vaccine doses in advance,” the ministry warned. “The vaccine dose should be prepared only after we have seen that the vaccine vial is diluted.”

Medical staff have also been instructed to record the date and time of the dilution clearly and prominently with a non-erasable pen. A diluted vaccine vial can be used for up to six hours at room temperature. After six hours, the bottle should be destroyed.

As of Sunday evening, some 10,000 medical professionals had been vaccinated and over 200,000 vaccination appointments had been made in HMOs around the country by medical staff and senior citizens, according to the Health Ministry.