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(REUTERS): Health authorities in Denmark and Norway on Thursday decided to temporarily suspend the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine shots after reports of the formation of blood clots in some who have been vaccinated.
The move comes after Austria stopped using a batch of AstraZeneca shots while investigating a death from coagulation disorders and an illness from a pulmonary embolism.
“It is currently not possible to conclude whether there is a link. We are acting early, it needs to be thoroughly investigated,” Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said on Twitter. The vaccine would be suspended for 14 days in Denmark.
Danish health authorities said the country’s decision to suspend the shots for two weeks came after a 60-year old woman in Denmark, who was given an AstraZeneca shot from the same batch, formed a blood clot and died.
Following Denmark’s move, Norway announced later on Thursday that it was also halting the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. “This is a cautionary decision,” Geir Bukholm, director of infection prevention at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) said.
FHI did not say how long the suspension would last. “We await information to see if there is a link between the vaccination and this case with a blood clot,” Bukholm said.
Meanwhile, Italy said it would suspend use of the AstraZeneca batch that was used in Austria. Some health experts said there was little evidence to suggest the AstraZeneca vaccine should not be administered and that the cases of blood clots corresponded with the rate of such cases in the general population.
AstraZeneca told an international news agency that the safety of its vaccine had been extensively studied in human trials and peer-reviewed data had confirmed the vaccine was generally well tolerated.
The drugmaker said earlier this week its shots were subject to strict and rigorous quality controls and that there had been no confirmed serious adverse events associated with the vaccine.
