Italian woman accidentally given six shots of Covid-19 vaccine

A 23-year-old woman who was mistakenly given six doses of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has been discharged from the hospital where she was being monitored for any adverse reaction.

The woman was administered the vaccine at the Noa hospital in Tuscany, central Italy, on Sunday, hospital spokeswoman Daniella Gianelli told CNN on Monday.

The patient, who is in “good health” with no underlying conditions, was kept in the hospital under strict observation for 24 hours and discharged Monday, Gianelli said.

A health worker accidentally filled a syringe with an entire bottle of the vaccine, containing a total of six doses, and only realized her mistake shortly after the shot was administered.

“She saw five empty syringes and realized her mistake,” Gianelli said.

Doctors will continue to monitor the patient’s immune response to the “massive dose of vaccine,” the spokeswoman said.

The patient was entitled to get the vaccine before other people in her age group because she is an intern in the hospital’s psychology department, she added.

An internal investigation has been opened, said Gianelli, who added that it was “maybe just human error, definitively not on purpose.