Norway, Sweden and Denmark will continue to vaccinate AstraZeneca COVID-19 despite the conclusion of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) that the vaccine is ‘safe and effective’.
All three countries have said they are reviewing the EMA’s ruling that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks.
“Due to the several serious cases in Norway, we want to thoroughly review the situation before we draw a conclusion,” said Geir Bukholm, director of the infection control division at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
“It will take a while and we will provide an update at the end of next week,” he added.
The Swedish Public Health Agency has said its national regulator is investigating cases of blood clots in the country.
“[We] hope that next week we will be able to decide how to best use the vaccine in the future, ”said Swedish epidemiologist Anders Tegnell.
In Denmark, the health authority said that ‘cases of severe but rare blood clots have been observed after vaccination with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine’.
They will hold a press conference on Friday to answer questions about the vaccine, but will continue to interrupt vaccinations as they review the EMA’s assessment in the coming days.
Earlier on Thursday, a Norwegian medical team said there was a link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clots.
“We have achieved results that can explain the clinical course of our admitted patients,” said Pål André Holme, a professor of hematology at Oslo University Hospital, a few hours before the EMA briefing.
“These patients had a potent immune response that led to the formation of antibodies that could affect the platelets and thus lead to blood clots,” he said, adding that he saw no other possibility but that it was linked to the vaccine.
Norway, where about 120,000 people received the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine, had six cases of serious side effects, two of which were fatal.