Ireland stops AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine use over blood clot reports

Ireland has reportedly suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine post reports from Norway of severe blood clotting in some recipients there.

Sources close to the matter stated that three healthcare workers in Norway, after receiving AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shots, were admitted to a hospital for bleeding, blood clots, and a reduced blood platelet count.

A temporary deferral was recommended by Ireland's National Immunization Advisory Committee (NIAC) awaiting further information from the EMA (European Medicines Agency) in the upcoming days, confirmed sources.

It is to be noted that AstraZeneca recently announced that it had conducted a study of about 17 million people who had been vaccinated in the United Kingdom and the European Union and found no signs of an elevated risk of blood clots.

Norway, Denmark, and Iceland have all stopped using the vaccine due to clotting issues, with Thailand being the first country outside of Europe to do so on Friday, halting its AstraZeneca launch due to safety concerns.

After a teacher died following his vaccination on Saturday, Piedmont, Italy's northern region, declared that it would stop using a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines. Last week, Austria also stopped using a specific batch.

However, the EMA said that there is no evidence that the vaccine triggered the events, which was confirmed by the World Health Organization.

In this context, Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, expressed that the Irish authorities have received reports of clotting like those observed in Europe last week, though not as severe as the cases in Norway and that they may be overreacting.

AstraZeneca vaccines account for 20% of the 590,000 shots given to Ireland's 4.9 million population, mostly to healthcare staff after the vaccine was originally not approved for those over the age of 70, and the company delivered far fewer vaccines to the EU than decided.

In Ireland, there have reportedly been 4,534 COVID-19-related deaths. While officials are worried about an increase in new cases in recent days, although the number of cases per 100,000 people in the past 14 days dropped to 151 from a high of over 1,500 in January, sources cited.

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-ireland/ireland-latest-country-to-suspend-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine-idUSKBN2B6069