MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia will continue its inoculation program with AstraZeneca PLC, health officials said on Saturday after a case of blood clotting raised concerns about the vaccine’s safety.
A 44-year-old man was admitted to a Melbourne hospital with clotting, days after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, suffering from severe thrombosis, a condition that prevents normal blood flow through the circulatory system.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) regulator and a panel, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ATAGI), met on Friday and early Saturday to discuss further advice on the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“We have not been advised at this time by ATAGI or TGA to pause the launch of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Australia,” said Australia’s deputy medical director, Michael Kidd, in a television interview on Saturday afternoon.
Kidd said, however, that the blood clotting case “probably” is related to the vaccine.
“The risks of serious side effects remain very low, but safety is paramount and that is why TAGI and TGA continue to do due diligence in this case,” said Kidd, adding that new announcements would come next week.
On Thursday, Britain identified 30 cases of rare blood clot events after using the vaccine. Several countries, including Canada, France, Germany and Spain, have limited their use after similar reports.
Possible complications with the launch of the AstraZeneca vaccine may further delay the already delayed inoculation impulse in Australia.
Australia launched mass vaccination for its 25 million inhabitants in February, with the majority expected to receive the vaccine from the University of Oxford / AstraZeneca, as 50 million doses are being produced domestically by CSL Ltd.
The country had problems, however, implementing the program, missing the March target by about 3.3 million doses, while the states and the federal government argued about the guilt.
The problems follow a year of significant success in reducing the virus, with instant blocks, border closures and rapid screening, limiting coronavirus infections to just under 29,300 infections, with 909 deaths from COVID-19.
On Saturday, Queensland, the epicenter of the most recent coronavirus outbreak, registered a new infection, health officials said, but the risks to the public were minimal as the victim was isolated for days.
(Global vaccination tracker: here)
(Interactive chart that tracks the global spread of the coronavirus: here)
Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and William Mallard