Botswana is probing link between two deaths and AstraZeneca Covid shots
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India had donated 30,000 doses of the vaccine which were made at the Serum Institute.
Botswana is currently investigating the deaths of two people who had received the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.
The country’s health ministry is currently investigating any potential link between the two. So far, Botswana has administered 31,000 doses of the vaccine, the only vaccine to be rolled out in the African country.
India had donated 30,000 doses of the vaccine which were made at the Serum Institute of India (SII).
In addition, Botswana bought 33,000 doses that were made in South Korea as part of the global vaccine distribution scheme COVAX. The two people who died had received the shots made in India.
Millions of doses of AstraZeneca vaccines have been administered around the world. But last week, European drug regulator found a potential link between the vaccine and very rare cases of blood clots.
The European Medicines Agency had received reports of 169 cases of the blood clot by April among 34 million doses that were given out. Most of these cases were reported among women below 60.
In a statement on Sunday, the Botswana health ministry said that the two deaths reported were of elderly people.
"The ministry has referred the matter to the regulator being BOMRA for immediate investigation. It is expected that BOMRA investigation will seek to establish the cause of two deaths as well as whether they are in any way linked to the COVID vaccine which was administered," the statement read.
So far, over 40,000 coronavirus cases and 630 deaths have been recorded during the pandemic.