DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland has temporarily suspended the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine “out of precaution” on Sunday, citing reports from the Norwegian Medicines Agency about a severe blood clotting group in some beneficiaries there.
Three Norwegian health workers who had recently received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine were being treated in hospital for bleeding, blood clots and a low blood platelet count, health officials said on Saturday.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NIAC) in Ireland has recommended a temporary postponement until more information is received from European regulators in the coming days.
Authorities in Denmark, Norway and Iceland suspended the use of the vaccine due to clotting problems, while Austria stopped using a batch of AstraZeneca photos last week while investigating a death due to clotting disorders.
The EMA said there was no indication that the events were caused by the vaccination, an opinion repeated by the World Health Organization on Friday. AstraZeneca also said it found no evidence of an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis.
Irish authorities received several reports of coagulation similar to those seen in Europe last week, but nothing as serious as the cases in Norway, said Dr Ronan Glynn’s deputy director.
Glynn said Norwegian cases involving a group of four unusual coagulation events involving the brain in children between the ages of 30 and 40 raised the level of concern higher.
He said one of the reasons Ireland acted now was to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine to people of a similar age with serious illnesses underlying it next week.
“Maybe it’s nothing, we might overreact and I sincerely hope that in a week we will be accused of being too cautious,” Glynn told RTE national broadcaster.
“We hope to have data to reassure us in a few short days and we will get back to work.”
Vaccinations against AstraZeneca represent 20% of the 590,000 vaccines given to Ireland’s 4.9 million people, mainly health workers, after their use was not initially recommended for those over the age of 70, and the company provided much fewer vaccines to the European Union than agreed.
There have been 4,534 COVID-19-related deaths in Ireland. The number of cases per 100,000 people in the last 14 days has dropped to 155 from a high of more than 1,500 in January, although officials are concerned about a slight increase in new cases in recent days.
Northern Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Michelle O’Neill has expressed concern about the suspension of AstraZeneca elsewhere. The region’s assistant director of public health, Stephen Bergin, said the vaccine would be launched.
Like the rest of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland is much more advanced in its program and has inoculated more than 40% of the adult population, relying heavily on the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Reported by Padraic Halpin, edited by Bernadette Baum and Louise Heavens