Singapore Investigates Cardiac Arrest of Vaccinated Teenager

Singapore's government will investigate the case of a 16-year-old student who suffered from cardiac arrest to determine if there was a link to his covid vaccination, the Ministry of Health said.

The expert committee on covid-19 vaccination will monitor the outcome of this investigation, the ministry said in a statement on Monday. All those going for a vaccination, particularly adolescents and younger men below 30, should avoid strenuous physical activity for seven days as a precaution after getting either the first or second dose, it said.

The student got his first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty vaccine on June 27 without incident. Prior to his collapse on July 3, he weight-lifted at the gym using very heavy weights.

"The preliminary diagnosis of his condition is an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Clinical and laboratory tests are in progress to understand the underlying cause," the Health Ministry said. "This will include a thorough consideration of whether there was acute severe myocarditis, which is severe inflammation of the heart muscles affecting the heart function, as a possible diagnosis."