(REUTERS): A number of European countries — including Germany, France, Italy and Spain — have suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine after several reports of blood clots in some recipients, though the company and international regulators say there is no evidence the shot is to blame.
The flurry of suspensions came after a number of other countries, mostly in Europe, halted their rollouts late last week. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has backed the use of the vaccine, saying it has seen no evidence that the shot had caused clotting.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said the country suspended the use of the shot on the advice of the national vaccine regulator, the Paul Ehrlich Institute. “Today’s decision is a purely precautionary measure,” Spahn said. France and Italy announced similar moves shortly afterwards.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the use of the AstraZeneca shot would be suspended as a precautionary measure until at least Tuesday afternoon when the European Union’s medicines regulator – the EMA – will issue its recommendation over the vaccine.
Meanwhile, Italy’s medicines authority AIFA said it was implementing its own suspension as a “precautionary and temporary measure” pending rulings by the EMA. Later, Spain’s Health Minister Carolina Darias said the country was suspending its use of the vaccine for two weeks as a “precaution”.
On Sunday, AstraZeneca had said there is no cause for concern with its vaccine, which is jointly produced with the United Kingdom’s University of Oxford, and that there were fewer reported thrombosis cases in those who received the shot than in the general population.
The EMA and the WHO also said available data does not suggest the vaccine caused the clots and people should continue to be immunised with the shot. The WHO scientist reiterated that there have been no documented deaths linked to COVID-19 vaccines.
Denmark, Norway, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland, Bulgaria, Portugal and Slovenia were among those to suspend the use of the shot.
