A 23-year-old Italian woman was under observation in a hospital in Tuscany after receiving six doses of the Pfizer vaccine in error, news agency AGI reported Monday.
The woman was in good condition after receiving fluids and paracetamol following the injection Sunday, AGI reported.
Instead of injecting just one dose into the arm of the student, a nurse mistakenly injected the entire vial, the equivalent of six doses. Previous studies to test overdoses of the Pfizer vaccine were limited to four doses, AGI wrote.
The incident has been reported to Italy’s medicine regulator. Overdoses of the Pfizer vaccine have previously been reported in the United States, Australia, Germany and Israel.
In one such incident of vaccine overdose, Vorpommern-Ruegen district authorities in Germany said the workers in Stralsund city received five times the recommended dose of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine on Sunday. Four went to the hospital for observation after developing flu-like symptoms. “I deeply regret the incident. This individual case is due to individual errors. I hope that all those affected do not experience any serious side-effects,” district chief Stefan Kerth said in a statement.
The incident came after some German districts declined to use vaccines received over the weekend on suspicion that cold conditions were interrupted during delivery.
