Two days after he was administered the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, a 43-year-old group D worker at a government hospital in Ballari district in north Karnataka died of a heart attack on Monday evening.

“Nagaraju, 43 yrs of Ballari district who is a permanent employee of the Health department passed away due to a massive heart attack today. He was vaccinated January 16 at around 1:00 PM and was normal till today morning (no uneventful events in 24 hours after vaccination). Today morning when he came to duty, he complained of chest pain at around 09:30 am and collapsed. He was treated immediately and referred to Jindal Sanjeevani hospital for higher treatment. He was admitted to Jindal Sanjeevani Hospital at 11:15 am. Highest level of treatment was provided, but he couldn’t be saved,” the Karnataka health department said in a statement on Monday evening.

“None of the other health care workers who took the vaccine from the same vial had any adverse events. The district-level AEFI Committee met and had detailed discussions. The conclusion is that the death was due to cardiorespiratory arrest secondary to acute antereo septal wall MI,” the statement added.

Deputy Commissioner Pavan Kumar Malapati said, “Further details about the death will be shared with the state health department.”

Speaking to indianexpress.com, Medical officer of Sundur Government Hospital, Dr Ramashetty said, “We have sent the body to postmortem in the Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Science in Ballari and after the autopsy report only we can confirm the exact reason for his death.”