The AstraZeneca Covid-19 jab has been temporarily suspended in Ireland and the Netherlands. Photo / AP
The AstraZeneca Covid-19 jab has been temporarily suspended in Ireland and the Netherlands. Photo / AP
Ireland has temporarily suspended the rollout of the AstraZeneca coronavirus jab, after Norway reported that one person had died and three had been admitted to hospital after receiving the shot.
"The administration of Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca is temporarily deferred from this morning," a spokesperson from Ireland's health ministry said today, a few hours after the country's National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) recommended a pause in the campaign.
Niac head Dr Karina Butler told Irish state broadcaster RTÉ that the committee had taken the decision after Norway reported a "cluster of four serious, very rare, very serious clotting events ... that would normally be involved and in younger people".
"These very small but very rare serious events in people that you might not otherwise expect it, that raised a signal, a safety signal." In its statement, Niac said it had "not concluded that there was any link" between the AstraZeneca vaccine and these cases.
The Netherlands followed suit late Sunday (local time), suspending vaccinations with the AstraZeneca shot as a precaution for two weeks. The health ministry said the move followed six new reports in Denmark and Norway of blood clotting and lowered levels of blood platelets in people aged under 50.
The Dutch medicines authority also stressed that no link has been proven between the cases and the vaccine. The health ministry said that no cases had been reported in the Netherlands.
The UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) stressed that there was currently no evidence that showed that the vaccine causes blood clots.
"We are aware of the action in Ireland," it said in a statement. "We are closely reviewing reports but, given the large number of doses administered and the frequency at which blood clots can occur naturally, the evidence available does not suggest the vaccine is the cause."
Norwegian health authorities on Sunday reported that one health worker had died of a brain haemorrhage after receiving the dose, while three more, all of whom were under 50, had been admitted to hospital suffering from "severe cases of blood clots or brain haemorrhages".
In its report, it said that several other health personnel had reported minor clots under their skin, and called for anyone under the age of 50 who experienced "large or small bruises" after receiving the dose to visit a doctor.
Dr Pal Andre Holme, who is treating the three health workers at Oslo University Hospital, told Norway's VG newspaper that it was "very unusual" to see such young patients with such "low levels of blood platelets".
"These are healthy young people who have not had any kind of disease before, who then get severe blood clots. You have to ask questions whether there is a connection with the vaccine, which I do not consider unlikely," he said.
Ireland is the latest in a succession of countries to pause their use of the AstraZeneca jab, with Denmark, Norway and Iceland announcing suspensions on Friday, and Bulgaria following on Saturday.
Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxembourg have all suspended the use of the batch used in Austria, which was followed by one death from coagulation disorders and one illness from a pulmonary embolism. Italy has suspended the use of another batch.
The World Health Organisation said on Saturday that there was no reason for countries to stop using AstraZeneca's vaccine, with an ongoing analysis by its vaccines advisory committee so far establishing no causal link between the vaccine and blood clots.
AstraZeneca has also insisted that the jab is safe, claiming data from the 17 million vaccine doses so far provided no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis or low levels of platelets.
"In fact, the reported numbers of these types of events for Covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca are not greater than the number that would have occurred naturally in the unvaccinated population," a company spokeswoman said.
The company yesterday warned of further shortfalls in its deliveries to European countries, due to lower-than-expected production output and export restrictions.
"AstraZeneca is disappointed to announce a shortfall in planned Covid-19 vaccine shipments to the European Union... despite working tirelessly to accelerate supply," it said.
The European medicine regulator, the European Medicines Agency, on Saturday added severe allergies to the list of possible side effects from the AstraZeneca vaccine following evidence from the UK.
On Saturday it launched a review of the blood clot risk associated with the vaccine, which will include an analysis of the new cases from Norway.
