ROME (Reuters) – Prosecutors in the Piedmont region of northern Italy said on Monday that they had seized a batch of 393,600 AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines after the death of a man hours after receiving an injection.
The measure represents another blow to the image of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Italy and will further hinder the government’s anti-coronavirus inoculation campaign.
On Sunday, the Piedmont regional government suspended the use of the lot, ABV5811, after Sandro Tognatti, a 57-year-old music teacher, fell ill and died in circumstances that have not yet been clarified.
Magistrates in Sicily ordered the seizure of a separate batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine last week, following the sudden death of two men who had recently been vaccinated.
The Italian government said there was no evidence of a connection between the deaths and the jabs and allowed the AstraZeneca vaccine to continue to be administered.
On the other hand, Ireland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland suspended the use of the vaccine after clotting problems, some of them fatal, in people who used it.
Tognatti had his chance on Saturday afternoon, his wife told Italian newspapers. He developed a high fever during the night and felt bad again on Sunday morning. An ambulance was called, but he died shortly afterwards.
“Therefore, it is important to ensure that continued administration of the drug across the country does not lead to additional consequences (harmful or fatal) … until we are sure that (Tognatti’s) death cannot be attributed to the aforementioned inoculation, Prosecutor Teresa Ângela Camelio said in a note.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi and Angelo Amante, written by Gavin Jones and Crispian Balmer; edited by Philippa Fletcher)