AstraZeneca vaccine suspended after blood clot reports

The European Medicines Agency has said the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine can continue to be used during an investigation into cases of blood clots that have prompted several European countries to pause their use of the shot.

The EMA said 30 cases of “thromboembolic events” or blood clots had been reported among 5 million people who had received the jab in Europe so far. “The vaccine’s benefits continue to outweigh its risks,” the regulator said in a statement.

Several European countries have either suspended inoculations with the AstraZeneca vaccine as a precautionary measure or banned the use of a specific batch after blood clots formed in some people who had received the jab.

Denmark, Norway and Iceland have suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine following reports that people who received it went on to form blood clots.

But the European medicine regulator EMA said the vaccine’s benefits outweighed its risks and it could continue to be administered.

Europe is struggling to speed up its vaccine rollout after delivery delays from Pfizer and AstraZeneca, even as a spike in cases amid a more contagious virus variant has triggered fresh lockdowns in countries like Italy and France.

“The vaccine can continue to be administered while investigation of cases of thromboembolic events is ongoing,” the EMA said. “There is currently no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions, which are not listed as side-effects with this vaccine.”

AstraZeneca, which developed the vaccine with the University of Oxford, said the safety of its shot had been extensively studied in human trials and that peer-reviewed data had confirmed the vaccine was generally well tolerated.

Its vaccines were subject to strict and rigorous quality controls and there had been “no confirmed serious adverse events associated with the vaccine”, it said.