COVID-19 vaccines
This webpage summarises the suspected side effects reported to the HPRA following COVID-19 vaccinations. The figures were last updated on 16 January 2025 and include reports received up to 31 December.
Healthcare professionals and members of the public are reminded to refer to the product information for COVID-19 vaccines for information and advice on known side effects.
Reports of suspected side effects can be notified to the HPRA using our online reporting form.
Reports of suspected side effects notified to the HPRA
Reports of suspected side effects are notified to the HPRA voluntarily by healthcare professionals and members of the public. All COVID-19 vaccines have some side effects, most of which are mild to moderate. These side effects need to be continuously balanced against the risk of COVID-19 illness and related complications, including hospitalisation and death.
Up to 31 December 2024, the HPRA has received a total of 21,338 reports describing suspected side effects in association with COVID-19 vaccines, of which 2,845 were received in 2022 and 400 were received in 2023, and 209 were received in 2024. A breakdown of reports received by the vaccine is provided in the table below. Learn more about understanding the data and background information on the evaluation of suspected side effect reports.
| Vaccine | Number of Reports Received |
| mRNA vaccines (Comirnaty® and Spikevax®) | 14,207 |
| Adenoviral vector vaccines (Vaxzevria® and Jcovden® [previously Janssen]) | 6,769 |
| Recombinant adjuvanted spike protein vaccine (Nuvaxovid®) | 8 |
| Brand unknown/not specified | 375 |
Notes on the table:
- The number of reports received for different COVID-19 vaccines are not directly comparable, given differences in how vaccines have been used.
- Some reports involved vaccination with more than one brand of vaccine, therefore the sum of the number of reports per vaccine type is greater than the total number of reports received.
Reports of suspected side effects notified to the HPRA
Anonymised data on reports of suspected side effects notified to the HPRA and throughout the EU to other regulatory authorities are publicly available through the European database of suspected adverse drug reaction reports. Please note that the number of reports available in the European database for Ireland can be less than those cited above. The number of reports cited above includes some that do not meet the criteria for reporting to the European database, for example, reports where the vaccine brand is unknown or reports that describe a medication error with no side effect. At any given time, several reports remain under processing by the HPRA and are submitted to the European database per regulatory reporting timelines.
The European Medicines Agency's (EMA) Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC), where the HPRA participates, continuously monitors the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. From January 2021 to December 2022, the EMA published safety updates for COVID-19 vaccines, outlining the outcomes from assessments by the PRAC of emerging worldwide safety data.
Since December 2022, the EMA has no longer published monthly updates. You can view the available information for each vaccine and safety updates previously published on the EMA's COVID-19 vaccine web pages using the links below.
- Comirnaty (Pfizer/BioNTEch)
- Spikevax (Moderna)
- Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca) (no longer authorised in the the EU)
- Jcovden (Janssen) (no longer authorised in the EU)
- Nuvaxovid (Novavax)
- VidPrevtyn Beta (Sanofi)
- COVID-19 Vaccine (inactivated, adjuvanted) Valneva
- Bimervax (previously COVID-19 Vaccine HIPRA)
The EMA will continue publishing high-level information on reports of suspected side effects. Further information is available on the EMA's COVID-19 vaccines safety webpage.