LONDON (AP) – Irish health officials recommended on Sunday the temporary suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of severe blood clotting after inoculations in Norway.
Dr. Ronan Glynn, deputy chief medical officer of Ireland, said the recommendation was made after the Norwegian drug agency reported four cases of blood clotting in adults after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.
He said that while there is no conclusive link between the vaccine and the cases, Irish health officials are recommending suspending the vaccine’s release as a precaution. The Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic authorities have taken similar precautionary measures.
AstraZeneca said in a statement on Sunday that “it would like to offer its guarantee on the safety of its COVID-19 vaccine based on clear scientific evidence”.
“Public safety will always come first,” said the Swedish-British biopharmaceutical company, adding that it is “keeping this issue under close scrutiny, but the available evidence does not confirm that the vaccine is the cause.”
The company said that a review of the safety data of more than 17 million people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine in the European Union and the UK “showed no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, lot or in any specific country. “
The World Health Organization and the European Union’s drug regulator said earlier that there was no link between the injection and an increased risk of developing a clot.
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