English
Copenhagen: Denmark on Thursday became the sixth country in the world to suspend the use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine over concerns about patients developing post-jab blood clots. Earlier, other countries including Norway and Iceland temporarily suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine. Notably, Denmark was first country to announce its suspension, “following reports of serious cases of blood clots” among people who had received the vaccine.
Denmark’s Health Authority in a statement stressed that the move 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”.
On the other hand, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said that as of March 9, over 22 cases of blood clots had been reported among more than three million people vaccinated in the European Economic Area.
On Monday, Austria announced 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.
Prior to this, 4 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.
Denmark however suspended the use of all of its AstraZeneca supply, as did Iceland and Norway in subsequent announcements on Thursday citing similar concerns.
Notably, AstraZeneca is an Anglo-Swedish company which has developed the vaccine with Oxford University, defended the safety of its product.
