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AMSTERDAM, March 15 (Reuters) - The Netherlands has seen 10
cases of noteworthy adverse side effects from AstraZeneca's
COVID-19 vaccine, a Dutch drug watchdog said on Monday,
hours after the government put its vaccination programme on hold
following reports of possible unexpected side effects in other
countries.
The Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb said in a statement that
10 cases of reported side effects seen with the vaccine in the
Netherlands included cases of possible thrombosis or embolisms,
but none of the cases also included a lowered number of
platelets, as has been reported reported in Denmark and Norway.
The Dutch government announced shortly before midnight on
Sunday that it was halting use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Its
decision came hours before the Dutch began casting votes in a
national election seen as a referendum on the government's
handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision meant 43,000 vaccination appointments would be
cancelled at short notice, the country's health authorities
said.
European vaccination programmes have been upset in the last
two weeks by reports that recipients of the AstraZeneca
inoculation have suffered blood clots.
The European Medicines Agency has said there is no
indication that the events were caused by the vaccination, a
view that was echoed by the World Health Organization on Friday.
The Dutch vaccination programme got off to a slow start, but
hoped to catch up using the Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna vaccines,
and later the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. AstraZeneca, however,
was to have accounted for 30% of 4.3 million vaccinations
through April 15.
The Dutch health ministry said it hoped to resume
vaccinations with AstraZeneca within several weeks, describing
the halt as a "pause" taken only as a precaution.
"I hope (the halt will last) no longer than a couple of
weeks, because we need vaccines to be able to put this nasty
period behind us," Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said on an
early morning talk show.
The move follows a report that health workers in Norway who
had recently received the vaccine were being treated in hospital
for bleeding, blood clots and a low count of blood
platelets.
The Netherlands has pre-ordered 12 million doses of
AstraZeneca's vaccine.
AstraZeneca said on Sunday a review of safety data of people
vaccinated with its COVID-19 vaccine had shown no evidence of an
increased risk of blood clots.
Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Iceland and Thailand have halted
use of AstraZeneca's vaccine over blood clotting concerns.
Italy's northern region of Piedmont on Sunday said it would stop
using a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines after a teacher died
following his vaccination on Saturday, while Austria also
stopped using a particular batch last week.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Susan Fenton)
