Norway is following Denmark in suspending the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine after reports of a small number of people who have received a jab developed blood clots, and one person died.

As we told you earlier, Denmark has ordered a two-week halt on the use of the jab as a precaution.

AstraZeneca says the vaccine goes through "stringent" safety checks before being approved for use by regulators and clinical data shows the vaccine has been "generally well-tolerated".

Dr Phil Bryan, vaccines safety lead for the UK's medicines watchdog, says vaccine safety is of "paramount importance" and that it had not been confirmed that the report of a blood clot in Denmark is related to the AstraZeneca jab.

He adds more than 11 million doses of the vaccine have been administered across the UK with reports of blood clots "not greater than the number that would have occurred naturally in the vaccinated population".


Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-56357497


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UPDATE:

Which countries are not using the drug?

Denmark, Norway and Iceland have temporarily suspended the rollout of the vaccine. Italy and Austria, meanwhile, have stopped using certain batches of the drug as a precautionary measure.

The suspensions in Italy and Austria involve different batches of the vaccine.

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxembourg have also suspended the use of the same batch as Austria.

In an earlier statement, the EMA said Denmark's decision was a "precautionary measure [taken] while a full investigation is ongoing into reports of blood clots in people who received the vaccine, including one case in Denmark where a person died".

Italy's medicines body said its decision was "precautionary", adding that no link had been established between the vaccine and subsequent "serious adverse events".

Two Italians are reported to have died after receiving the vaccine, and an unnamed source told Reuters news agency that their deaths are what prompted the temporary suspension.

Austria, meanwhile, took its decision after a woman died 10 days after vaccination because of "severe blood coagulation problems". The Austrian doses were part of a batch of one million doses, identified as ABV5300, that was sent to 17 European countries.

The EMA said its safety committee was reviewing the Austrian case, but made clear that there was "no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions".

No details of the Danish death have been given, but health officials said they were pausing use of the vaccine for 14 days in what Health Minister Magnus Heunicke called a "precautionary measure". Although no link had been established, he said "we must respond in a timely and careful manner" until a conclusion was reached.

Norway's public health institute said it would follow the Danish move to halt all use of the vaccine until the Danish cases were investigated. "We are waiting for more information to see if there is a link between the vaccine and this blood clot case," said Geir Bukholm of the National Institute of Health.

Iceland was also suspending use of the vaccine, the chief epidemiologist told public broadcaster Ruv, to "err on the side of caution".

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56357760