Ireland on Sunday stopped using the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine as a precautionary measure against blood clot concerns.
“The decision to suspend the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine was based on new Norwegian information that emerged late last night. This is a cautious step,” said Health Minister Stephen Donnelly. tweet.
Ronan Glynn, deputy chief medical officer, said experts recommended the ban “following a report from the Norwegian Pharmaceutical Agency of four new reports of severe hemorrhage incidents in adults after being vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccine Covid-19.”
But Glynn also warned that it was not “decided” that there was any connection between the clotting events and the Astra-Zeneca injection, which Ireland began administering in early February.
The decision makes Ireland the latest in a series of European countries to announce partial or temporary immunization bans with the kick amid concerns about bleeding. It also comes just days after Irish authorities suggested that the use of the AstraZenca vaccine should be extended to cover 70-plus year olds.
Last week, Austria said it was suspending the use of a special batch of vaccines after one person died and another became ill with bleeding conditions after receiving the vaccine. This batch was delivered to a total of 17 European countries, including Ireland.
Bulgaria announced on Friday that it was completely banning inoculations with the AstraZeneca injection, stating that “unauthorized side effects occur with proper use of the vaccine.”
On Friday, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman said a causal relationship between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the clotting events “has not been shown.”
The spokesman said the WHO group of vaccine experts, SAGE, was evaluating the reports recently and would make their results public as soon as they became available.