Israel’s health ministry said it had found the small number of heart inflammation cases observed mainly in young men who had received Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine in Israel were likely linked to their vaccination.

In Israel, 275 cases of myocarditis were reported between December 2020 and May 2021 among more than five million vaccinated people, the ministry said in disclosing the findings of a study it had commissioned to examine the matter.

Most patients who had experienced heart inflammation had spent no more than four days in the hospital and 95 per cent of the cases were classified as mild, according to the study, which the ministry said was conducted by three teams of experts.

The study found "there is a probable link between receiving the second dose (of Pfizer) vaccine and the appearance of myocarditis among men aged 16 to 30," it said in a statement.

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