OSLO (Reuters) – Three healthcare professionals from Norway who recently received the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 are being treated at the hospital for bleeding, blood clots and low platelet counts, Norwegian health officials said on Saturday.
Norway suspended the launch of this vaccine on Thursday after similar action from Denmark. Iceland later followed suit.
“We don’t know if the cases are related to the vaccine,” said Sigurd Hortemo, a senior doctor at the Norwegian Medicines Agency, at a news conference held in conjunction with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
All three individuals were less than 50 years old.
The European drug regulator EMA would investigate the three incidents, Hortemo added.
“They have very unusual symptoms: bleeding, blood clots and low platelet counts,” Steinar Madsen, Medical Director at the Norwegian Medicines Agency, told NRK broadcaster.
“They are very sick … We take this very seriously,” he said, adding that the authorities received notification of the cases on Saturday.
AstraZeneca was not immediately available for comment.
Before the move from Denmark and Norway, Austria stopped using a batch of AstraZeneca injections while investigating a death from coagulation disorders and a disease from pulmonary embolism.
Still, the EMA said on Thursday that the vaccine’s benefits outweigh its risks and could continue to be administered.
Europe is struggling to accelerate the launch of a vaccine after delays in the delivery of Pfizer and AstraZeneca, despite an increase in cases amid a more contagious virus variant that has triggered new blockages in countries like Italy and France.