OSLO (Reuters) – Three Norwegian health workers who recently received the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 are being treated in hospital for bleeding, blood clots and a low platelet count, Norwegian health authorities said on Saturday.
Norway stopped rolling out the vaccine on Thursday, following a similar move by Denmark. Iceland followed later.
“We do not know if the cases were linked to the vaccine,” said Sigurd Hortemo, a senior doctor at the Norwegian Medicines Agency, at a news conference held with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
All three individuals were under the age of 50.
European drug regulator EMA will investigate the three incidents, Hortemo added.
“They have very unusual symptoms: bleeding, blood clots and a low platelet count,” Steinar Madsen, medical director of the Norwegian Medicines Agency, told NRK.
“They are quite ill … We take it very seriously,” he said, adding that the authorities were notified of the cases on Saturday.
AstraZeneca was not immediately available for comment.
Prior to the relocation of Denmark and Norway, Austria stopped using a number of AstraZeneca shots while investigating deaths due to coagulation disorders and a disease due to pulmonary embolism.
However, EMA said on Thursday that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks and that it can still be administered.
Europe is struggling to accelerate the explosion of vaccines following the delay in delivery of Pfizer and AstraZeneca, even though an increase in cases amid a more contagious virus variant has caused new barriers in countries such as Italy and France.