The Dutch health minister says a temporary suspension is a precautionary measure after five reports of blood clots with low platelet counts in the blood after vaccination.
The Netherlands stopped administering the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines until 7 April.
On Friday, the Dutch health ministry said it would temporarily suspend vaccines for people under the age of 60. But after negotiations on Saturday, health departments decided to suspend all AstraZeneca vaccines to avoid waste.
About 700 people over 60 were due to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine in the next few days, but their appointments were also temporarily canceled, as there was no guarantee that an entire batch could be used entirely if only a few people received the vaccines.
The decision came days after German authorities also stopped using the AstraZeneca vaccine under the age of 60, citing new concerns about unusual blood clots reported in a small number of people who received the vaccines.
Earlier on Friday, a Dutch organization monitoring the side effects of the vaccine said it had received five reports of blood clots with low platelet counts in the blood after vaccination. The DPA news agency reported that one person had died.
All cases occurred between seven and 10 days after vaccination and all affected people were women aged between 25 and 65 years.
Investigations are ongoing to see if they were caused by the vaccination.
The vaccine monitoring organization said that in the period when the five cases were reported, about 400,000 people were vaccinated in the Netherlands with the injection of AstraZeneca.
Health Minister Hugo de Jonge says the temporary stoppage is a precautionary measure.
“I think it is very important that the Dutch reports are also properly investigated,” said de Jonge. “We must err on the side of caution.”
Saturday’s decision is another setback for the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is critical to Europe’s immunization campaign and a cornerstone of the global strategy to bring vaccines to poorer countries as it is cheaper and easier to use than rival vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.
This comes two weeks after the European Union drug regulator said the vaccine did not increase the overall incidence of blood clots after a similar scare.
At the time, the European Medicines Agency said the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks, but it cannot rule out a link between the injection and some unusual types of clots, and recommended adding a warning about possible rare side effects.
De Jonge said the Dutch break comes before an update next week from the EU drug agency on the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Most EU countries, including Germany, resumed use of the AstraZeneca vaccine on 19 March.