Denmark, Iceland, Norway Suspend Use Of AstraZeneca Over "Blood Clots"
Denmark, Iceland, and Norway Thursday temporarily suspended the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine following reports “of serious cases of blood clots” among people who had received the vaccine.
Denmark’s Health Authority stressed in a statement that the move to suspend AstraZeneca was precautionary, and that “it has not been determined, at the time being, that there is a link between the vaccine and the blood clots”.
As of March 9, 22 cases of blood clots had been reported among more than three million people vaccinated in the European Economic Area, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said.
The development comes days after Austria announced on Monday that it had suspended the use of a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines after a 49-year-old nurse died of “severe blood coagulation problems” days after receiving an anti-Covid shot.
Four other European countries, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Luxemburg, have also suspended the use of vaccines from this batch, which was sent to 17 European countries and consisted of one million jabs.
HOT DEALS:
itel A70 - (128GB, 3GB RAM) $89,
itel A70 - (256GB, 4GB RAM) $99
itel P40 (128GB, 4GB), (6000mAh) $99
itel P40 (64GB, 4G), (6000mAh) $93
Cash on Delivery in Harare & Bulawayo. Tinotumira kwamuri inosvika.
WhatsApp: 0783 450 793
Denmark however suspended the use of all of its AstraZeneca supply, as did Iceland and Norway in subsequent announcements on Thursday citing similar concerns.
On Wednesday, the EMA said a preliminary probe showed that the batch of AstraZeneca vaccines used in Austria was likely not to blame for the nurse’s death. Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said:
This is a super-cautious approach based on some isolated reports in Europe.
The risk and benefit balance is still very much in favour of the vaccine.
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca, an Anglo-Swedish company that developed the vaccine with Oxford University, defended the safety of its product. A spokesman for the group told AFP:
The safety of the vaccine has been extensively studied in phase III clinical trials and peer-reviewed data confirms the vaccine has been generally well tolerated.
Britain, whose widely-praised vaccine rollout has been largely underpinned by the AstraZeneca jab, also defended it as “both safe and effective”.
