Ireland on Sunday suspended the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine as a precautionary measure in relation to blood clots.
“The decision to temporarily suspend the use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine was based on new information from Norway that came out last night. This is a precautionary step,” said Health Minister Stephen Donnelly. posted on Twitter.
Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, SAPS The experts recommended the suspension “following a report by the Norwegian Medicines Agency on four new reports of serious blood clotting events in adults after vaccination with Covid-19 AstraZeneca”.
But Glynn also warned that “no conclusion has been reached” that there is a link between the coagulation incidents and the Astra-Zeneca jab, which Ireland began administering in early February.
The decision makes Ireland the most recent of a number of European countries to announce partial or temporary suspensions of vaccination with rabies, amid concerns about blood clotting. It also comes just one day after Irish authorities recommended extending the use of the AstraZenca vaccine to cover people over the age of 70.
Last week, Austria said it was suspending the use of a certain batch of vaccines after one person died and another became ill from blood clotting conditions after vaccination. The consignment was delivered to a total of 17 European countries, including Ireland.
Bulgaria announced on Friday that it would completely stop vaccinations with AstraZeneca, citing “the appearance of inadmissible side effects with the correct use of the vaccine”.
On Friday, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman said a causal relationship between the AstraZeneca vaccine and coagulation incidents had not been demonstrated.
The spokesman said the WHO group of immunization experts, SAGE, is evaluating recent reports and will make the findings public as soon as they become available.