File photo: A dose of the Covid-19 vaccination of BioNTech and Pfizer is pictured in this undated handout photo, as Britain became the first western country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine Reuters

The health authorities now claim she was given four doses rather than six 

A 23-year-old Italian woman was under observation in a hospital in Tuscany after receiving six doses of the Pfizer vaccine in error, news agency AGI reported Monday. 

The woman was in good condition after receiving fluids and paracetamol following the injection Sunday, AGI reported.

Instead of injecting just one dose into the arm of the student, a nurse mistakenly injected the entire vial, the equivalent of six doses.

The mistake was immediately noticed and the patient was kept under observation.

She was discharged after 24 hours and “is feeling fine but is still closely monitored”, the health authority said.

In an interview with Corriere della Sera newspaper, the woman, identified only by her first name Virginia, said that after the incident she had a headache, felt exhausted and shivered.

She said she had no plans to press charges, adding: “These things can happen, we all make mistakes, no harm was meant.”

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The incident has been reported to Italy's medicine regulator.

However, the health authorities claim she was given four doses not six. 

Health authorities initially said the woman, a clinical psychology intern, received six doses, but corrected their mistake on Tuesday. 

They added that the discovery that it was four was “important” because Pfizer has previously run tests on the simultaneous injection of four doses. 

Those tests found no “particular consequences” for patients, a local health body in the central Italian region of Tuscany said in a statement Tuesday.

The accidental injection took place on Sunday in a hospital in Massa city in northwestern Tuscany.

The health authority blamed the mistake on human error, saying the nurse was stressed, and that it was working to ensure it could not happen again.

Overdoses of the Pfizer vaccine have previously been reported in the United States, Australia, Germany and Israel.