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By Catarina Demony
LISBON, April 8 (Reuters) - Portugal will from now on
recommend the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine only for
people aged over 60, the health authority DGS said on Thursday,
amid concerns over possible links between the shot and very rare
cases of blood clots.
The coordinator of the vaccination taskforce, Henrique Melo,
said the decision would only have a "small" impact on the
vaccination rollout.
"I want to highlight the goal of the vaccination campaign in
Portugal is to save lives and prevent serious illness," health
authority head Graca Freitas told a news conference. "This can
be achieved with any vaccine approved in Portugal."
The move came after the European Medicines Agency announced
on Wednesday it had reports of 169 cases of a rare clotting
disorder out of 34 million doses administered in Europe. Most
occurred in women under 60 and within two weeks of injection.
Melo said Portugal had already administered 400,000 doses of
the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Freitas urged those who had received a first dose to stay
calm as the side effects were "extremely rare". The suspension
for people under 60 is temporary and will be evaluated when
there is more data available.
Portugal is expecting to receive another 1.4 million
AstraZeneca doses by June. It also uses the Pfizer and Moderna
vaccines.
Portugal, which fought the worst of its outbreak in January
before cases slowed, has had 825,633 infections and 16,899
deaths.
European Union health ministers failed to agree common
guidance on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, despite calls
for coordination across member states to combat any public
hesitancy over taking the shot.
(Reporting by Catarina Demony and Victoria Waldersee; Editing
by Nathan Allen and Alison Williams)
