Scores bid farewell to Princes Town man who died 'after covid19 vaccine'

Scores of people bade their final respects on Friday afternoon to Ijaz "EG" Haniff, who died late on Thursday night at the San Fernando General Hospital.

Newsday spoke briefly to relatives before the funeral. They believe the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine caused a blood clot which led to his death at the hospital.

"He was a healthy man. EG was very active. Just look at the yard. He normally cuts the yard. He also had a roti business. He had heart surgery about ten years.

"What else could have caused his death?" one of his brothers said at Haniff’s home at Realize Road in Princes Town on Friday.

"The autopsy said he died because of a blood clot to the aorta. The only unusual thing he did was taking that vaccine."

Haniff, who would have turned 61 on May 14, was a heart patient. The father of two, he retired as a health inspector last year from the Princes Town Regional Corporation.

On April 7, Haniff was vaccinated at the Princes Town district health facility. Two days later, he became partially paralysed, relatives said, and was hospitalised until his death on Thursday, shortly after 10 pm.

One of the officiating imams, Aleemudeen Hosein, of the Realize and Mandingo Roads jamaat, told mourners that every soul "shall taste death."

"It is time for us (the living) to understand our purpose of life. Let us check ourselves individually and see if we are giving Allah thanks," he said. "Every day we wake in the morning, we have to give thanks. Death to a believer is a gift. Each one dies at the appointed time that Allah has appointed to him/her."

Hosein said Haniff died in the holy month of Ramadan, the most auspicious month in a Muslim’s calendar. He made the comments while standing near Imam Aleem Mohammed of the Bronte jamaat.

Encouraging mourners to obey the laws of TT on the pandemic, Hosein said: "They say you have to put on a face mask to save yourself. So they say."

Hosein also told mourners to do things pleasing to Allah. Such actions, he said, would benefit people in the afterlife.

"Prepare for the afterlife. Do righteous things," Hosein said.

He called on mourners to forgive Haniff for any hurt he might have caused during his life.

The body was later taken to the nearby cemetery for burial.

On Wednesday, a release from the South-West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) said it was aware of media reports in which the relatives of "a patient" alleged a correlation between the administration of the vaccine and a thrombus (blood clot), experienced by the patient.

The SWRHA said after preliminary investigations there was no evidence the patient’s condition was linked to the vaccine.

"Any report to the contrary is therefore inaccurate and greatly misleading," the release said.

‘However, consistent with our general protocol, the authority has shared the information with the patient’s next of kin."

Investigations are ongoing.