DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland became the last country to stop using AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday, temporarily suspending the injection “just in case” after Norway’s reports of serious blood clotting in some recipients.
Three health professionals from Norway who recently received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine were being treated at the hospital for bleeding, blood clots and low platelet counts, health officials said on Saturday.
The Irish National Immunization Advisory Committee (NIAC) recommended a temporary postponement pending receipt of more information from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the coming days.
DENMARK SUSPENDS THE USE OF THE ASTRAZENECA COVID-19 VACCINE FOLLOWING BLOOD COVERAGE REPORTS
AstraZeneca said on Sunday that it carried out a review covering more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and the United Kingdom, which showed no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.
Denmark, Norway and Iceland suspended the use of the vaccine because of clotting problems, while Thailand became the first country outside Europe to do so on Friday, delaying the launch of AstraZeneca for safety reasons in Europe.
On Sunday, northern Italy’s Piedmont region said it would stop using a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines after a teacher died after being vaccinated on Saturday. Austria also stopped using a particular batch last week.
The EMA said on Friday that there was no evidence that the events were caused by vaccination, an opinion that was corroborated by the World Health Organization.
‘WE CAN BE EXAGGERATING’
Irish authorities received some reports of clots similar to those seen in Europe last week, but nothing as serious as the cases in Norway, said Deputy Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn.
Glynn said the fact that the Norwegian cases were related to a group of four unusual clotting events involving the brain in people aged 30 to 40 years has raised the level of concern.
He said one of the reasons why Ireland acted now was that it should give the AstraZeneca vaccine to people of similar age with serious underlying illnesses in the next week.
“It may be nothing, we may be overreacting and I sincerely hope that in a week we will be accused of being overly cautious,” Glynn told the national broadcaster RTE.
“We hope to have data to reassure us in a few days and we will be back with all of that.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION
AstraZeneca’s vaccines account for 20% of the 590,000 injections administered among Ireland’s 4.9 million inhabitants, mainly for healthcare professionals after their use was not initially recommended for people over 70 and the company provided far fewer vaccines for the EU than agreed.
There were 4,534 COVID-19-related deaths in Ireland. The number of cases per 100,000 people in the past 14 days has dropped to 151, from an increase of 1,500 in January, although officials are concerned about a slight increase in new cases in the past few days.
Northern Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Michelle O’Neill has also raised concerns about the suspension of AstraZeneca elsewhere. In response to Ireland’s decision, the UK drug regulator said that while it was reviewing the reports closely, the available evidence does not suggest that the vaccine is the cause of the clots.
Like the rest of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland is far ahead in its program and has inoculated over 40% of the adult population, depending heavily on the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Reporting by Padraic Halpin, edited by Bernadette Baum, Louise Heavens and Jane Merriman