BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany will stop administering AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, a Ministry of Health spokesman said on Monday, making Germany the latest in several European countries to pause after reports of patients who fell ill.
The ministry said the decision followed a recommendation from the Paul Ehrlich Institute, a German vaccine official.
“Following a recommendation from the Paul Ehrlich Institute, the government is, as a precaution, suspending the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that Health Minister Jens Spahn would provide more details at a 4 pm news conference. local time (1500 GMT).
Several EU countries have suspended the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports from Denmark and Norway of possible serious side effects, including bleeding and blood clots.
Last week, Lothar Wieler, head of Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, said there was no evidence that patients who received the vaccine were more likely than patients of the same age group to suffer from blood disorders.
Many millions of people in Britain have so far received the vaccine from the Swedish-British pharmaceutical company.
Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Maria Sheahan