Norwegian health officials reported three additional cases of blood clots or bleeding in younger people who received the AstraZeneca Covid-19 injection, but said they could not yet say they were linked to vaccination.
The Norwegian Pharmaceutical Agency said similar incidents had been reported in other European countries.
The World Health Organization says a causal link between the vaccine and bleeding has not been established after Denmark, Norway and Iceland on Thursday suspended the use of the vaccine over concerns about patients developing blood clots from after the injection.
Also read | ‘Excellent vaccine’: WHO supports use of AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine
Several other countries have also banned the use of single-batch vaccines. At the same time the European medicines manufacturer and watchdog has ensured that the vaccine is safe.
Denmark initially stated that it had been canceled, although it emphasized that the move was cautious, and that “it was not proven, at the time, that there was a link between the vaccine and the blood clots”.
On Saturday, the Norwegian Medicines Agency said it had received “several reports of adverse events in young people with subcutaneous swelling vaccine (tiny dots and / or larger blue patches) after the coronavirus vaccine.
“This is really bad and can be a sign of decreased platelet aggregation numbers,” he said.
Geir Bukholm, director of Disease Control and Environmental Health at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, said now that after the decision to postpone the injection, it was now “part of the Norwegian Pharmaceutical Agency to follow up on these suspicious side effects and take the necessary action “.
Also read | Allergic side effects of AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine: EU drug regulator
AstraZeneca, an Anglo-Swedish company that developed the vaccine with Oxford University, has defended the safety of its product.
Meanwhile, India will conduct a more in-depth review of post-vaccination side effects from AstraZeneca’s picture next week although no cases of blood clots have been reported so far, an official told AFP Saturday.
“We are looking at all the serious incidents, especially serious adverse events such as deaths and hospitalization. We will come back if we find anything of concern,” said NK Arora, a member of India’s national action group on Covid 19, to AFP.
India has provided at least 28 million views in their major vaccination program, most of them AstraZeneca manufactured at the Serum Institute of India.
New Delhi has also donated millions of these jobs to around 70 countries over the past few weeks as part of their vaccine diplomacy.
(with AFP submission)