MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia will continue its inoculation program with AstraZeneca PLC, health officials said on Saturday after a case of blood clotting expressed concern about the safety of the vaccine.
A 44-year-old man was admitted to a coagulation hospital in Melbourne a few days after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, suffering from severe thrombosis, a condition that impedes the normal flow of blood into the circulatory system.
The Regulator for Therapeutic Products Administration (TGA) and a group, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ATAGI), met late Friday and early Saturday to discuss further advice on the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“We have not been advised at this time by ATAGI or TGA to discontinue the launch of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Australia,” Australian Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd said in a televised briefing on Saturday afternoon.
Kidd said, however, that the case of blood clotting is “probably” related to the vaccine.
“The risk of serious side effects remains very low, but safety is paramount and that is why TAGI and TGA continue to work diligently on this case,” Kidd said, adding that they will be announced next week.
On Thursday, the UK identified 30 cases of rare blood clot events following the use of the vaccine. Several nations, including Canada, France, Germany and Spain, have limited their use after similar reports.
Possible complications with the launch of the AstraZeneca vaccine could further slow down the already delayed inoculation process in Australia.
Australia launched mass vaccinations for its 25 million people in February, most of them expected to receive the vaccine from Oxford / AstraZeneca University, as CSL Ltd. produces 50 million doses domestically.
However, the country had problems launching the program, missing a March target of about 3.3 million doses, while states and the federal government quarreled over guilt.
The problems followed a year of significant success in fighting the virus, with rapid blockages, border closures and rapid follow-up, limiting coronavirus infections to just under 29,300 infections, with 909 COVID-19 deaths.
On Saturday, the state of Queensland, the epicenter of the latest small outbreak of coronavirus, registered a new infection, health officials said, but the risks to the public were minimal as the victim was isolated for days.
(Global Vaccination Tracker: here)
(Interactive chart to track the global spread of coronavirus: here)
Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Edited by Clarence Fernandez and William Mallard