The Dutch health minister said the temporary halt was a precautionary measure after five reports of low blood clots following vaccinations.
The Netherlands has stopped administering COVID-19 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccinations until April 7.
On Friday, the Dutch health ministry said it would temporarily stop vaccinations for people under the age of 60. But after talks on Saturday, the health departments decided to suspend all AstraZeneca jabs to avoid waste.
About 700 people over the age of 60 were to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine in the coming days, but their appointments were also temporarily canceled because there were no guarantees that a complete batch could be used in its entirety if only a few people must receive blows.
The decision comes days after German authorities also stopped using the AstraZeneca vaccine in the 1960s, citing fresh concerns about unusual blood clots reported to a small number of people who received gunshots.
Earlier on Friday, a Dutch organization monitoring the vaccine’s side effects said it had received five reports of low blood clots in the blood from vaccinations. The DPA news agency reported that one person died.
All cases occurred between seven and 10 days after vaccination and all affected people were women aged between 25 and 65 years.
Investigations are underway to determine if they were caused by vaccination.
The vaccine monitoring organization said that at the time the five cases were reported, about 400,000 people had been vaccinated in the Netherlands with AstraZeneca’s shot.
The Minister of Health, Hugo de Jonge, says that the temporary stop is a precautionary measure.
“I think it’s very important that the Dutch reports are also properly investigated,” de Jonge said. “We have to be careful.”
Saturday’s decision is another obstacle to the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is key to Europe’s immunization campaign and a key element in the global strategy to get shots in poorer countries, as it is cheaper and easier to use than rival vaccines in Europe. Pfizer and Moderna.
It comes two weeks after the European Union’s drug regulator said the vaccine did not increase the overall incidence of blood clots following a similar scare.
At the time, the European Medicines Agency said the benefits of vaccination outweighed the risks, but could not rule out a link between the vaccine and some unusual types of clots, and recommended adding a warning about possible rare side effects.
De Jonge said the Dutch break comes ahead of an update next week from the EU Medicines Agency on the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Most EU countries, including Germany, resumed use of the AstraZeneca vaccine on 19 March.