LONDON (AP) – Irish health officials on Sunday recommended the temporary suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine following reports of severe blood clots following vaccinations in Norway.
Dr Ronan Glynn, Ireland’s deputy chief executive, said the recommendation was made after the Norwegian Medicines Agency reported four cases of blood clots in adults after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.
He said there was no conclusive link between the vaccine and the cases, but Irish health officials recommended suspending vaccination as a precaution. Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic authorities have taken similar precautionary measures.
AstraZeneca said in a statement on Sunday that it “wants to give its assurance on the safety of its COVID-19 vaccine based on clear scientific evidence.”
“The safety of the public will always come first,” the British-Swedish biopharmaceutical company said, pointing out that it was examining the issue, but available evidence did not confirm that the vaccine was the cause. “
The company said that a review of safety data from more than 17 million people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine in the European Union and the United Kingdom ‘showed no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or thrombocytopenia’. not, in any defined age group, gender, group or in any particular country. ”
The World Health Organization and the European Union’s medicine regulator have previously said there is no link between the jab and an increased risk of developing a blood clot.
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