The British Medicines Regulatory Authority announced Friday that it has registered 30 rare cases of blood clotting in Britain among more than 18 million people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Seven of those who experienced blood clotting have died.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority said, "The benefits of vaccination against Covid-19 still outweigh any risks," and urged citizens to continue taking the vaccine.

As of March 24, there were 22 cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis and another eight cases of thrombosis with low platelets.

The authority indicated that "the risk of developing this specific type of blood clots is very small."

"The number and nature of the negative effects that have been reported so far are not uncommon compared to other types of routinely used vaccines," she added in a statement.

There were no reports of similar cases after receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

The Medicines Regulatory Authority said that vaccination is the most effective way to reduce the number of deaths and severe symptoms caused by the coronavirus.

The Netherlands was the lastest European countries to stop using the AstraZeneca vaccine to vaccinate people under the age of 60, amid fears of a link between it and the incidence of rare blood clots.

The move came after five new cases were recorded in the Netherlands in women aged 25 to 65 years, one of whom died.

Germany took a similar decision earlier this week.

The European Medicines Agency is expected to update its recommendation on this issue on April 7. It previously declared the AstraZeneca vaccine safe, just as the World Health Organization did.

The European Medicines Agency said again Wednesday that it believed the vaccine was safe and that experts had not found any specific risk factors such as age, gender or medical history.

The vaccine was developed with the University of Oxford in Britain.