UPDATE: List of countries suspending use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine grows

World

Published: 2021-03-15 09:39

Last Updated: 2024-03-29 03:31


UPDATE: List of countries suspending use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine grows
UPDATE: List of countries suspending use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine grows

Monday, Ireland, Netherlands and Indonesia joined the growing list of countries suspending the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after three healthcare workers in Norway were treated in hospital for blood clots and low blood platelet counts shortly after receiving the AstraZeneca jab.

In turn, Ireland’s National Immunization Advisory Committee (NIAC) recommended the temporary suspension of the vaccine pending the receipt of further information from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the coming days.

Notably, reports were relayed to Irish authorities showing evidence of local clotting incidents, similar to those seen in Europe last week but nothing as serious as the cases in Norway, said Deputy Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn.

He said that the fact that there are four cases in Norway related to the jabs which involve 30 to 40 year olds is a cause for the high level of concern.

“It may be nothing, we may be overreacting and I sincerely hope that in a week’s time that we will have been accused of being overly-cautious,” Glynn told RTE.

AstraZeneca jabs make up around 20 percent of the 590,000 shots administered among the country's population of 4.9 million. The shots were mainly administered to healthcare workers.

In the Netherlands however, the vaccine will be suspended until at least March  29 as a precautionary measure, said the Dutch government.

This will lead to delays in rolling out vaccinations in the Netherlands, which had pre-ordered 12 million doses of the vaccine.

Health authorities had scheduled around 290,000 AstraZeneca injections in the coming two weeks.

The Health Ministry stated that there have been no cases reported in the country yet, adding that there is no direct link between the vaccine and the reports from Norway.

“We can’t allow any doubts about the vaccine,” Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said. However, he stressed that the country must ensure efficacy, "so it is wise to pause for now."

Additionally, Indonesia announced that it will delay administering AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine due to reports of blood clots among some recipients in Europe and will await a review from the WHO, according to the Indonesian health minister.

AstraZeneca denied Sunday any evidence of increased risk of blood clots due to their jab, adding that they had conducted a review covering roughly 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union (EU) and the UK which had shown no evidence of blood clots.

Piedmont, Italy Sunday said it would stop using a batch of the AstraZeneca vaccines after a teacher died following his vaccination. Austria also stopped using a particular batch last week.

The EMA said Friday that there is no evidence that the incidents were caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine, with the World Health Organization (WHO) following suit.