The South Korean government has acknowledged a causal relationship between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the death of a man who developed a rare blood clot following inoculation. 

This marks the first time the government recognized a fatal side effect of any COVID-19 vaccine product since the nation began its vaccination drive on February 26. 

The vaccination task force on Monday said it reached the conclusion during its meeting last Friday. 

The man, in his early 30s, had received the vaccine on May 27 and showed symptoms of severe headache and nausea after nine days. He was later admitted to a hospital and diagnosed with TTS(thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome) last Tuesday but passed on Wednesday. He was the country’s second clotting case among AstraZeneca recipients, following a male paramedic in his 20s who had recovered.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA), the man had no underlying diseases and his direct cause of death was a brain hemorrhage caused by TTS. 

TTS is a very rare but serious side effect of the vaccine where a patient develops blood clots along with low platelet levels.