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COPENHAGEN, March 11 (Reuters) - Denmark has put using
AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine shots on hold for two
weeks after reports of cases of blood clots forming, including
one death in Denmark, Danish authorities said on Thursday.
They did not say how many reports of blood clots there had
been, but Austria has stopped using a batch of AstraZeneca shots
while investigating a death from coagulation disorders and an
illness from a pulmonary embolism.
"Both we and the Danish Medicines Agency have to respond to
reports of possible serious side-effects, both from Denmark and
other European countries," the director of the Danish Health
Authority, Soren Brostrom, said in a statement.
The vaccine would be suspended for 14 days, the health
agency said. It did not give details of the Danish blood clot
victim.
AstraZeneca and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) were not
immediately available for comment.
The drugmaker said earlier this week its shots are subject
to strict and rigorous quality controls and that there have been
"no confirmed serious adverse events associated with the
vaccine". It said it was in contact with Austrian authorities
and would fully support their investigation.
The EMA said on Wednesday there was no evidence so far
linking AstraZeneca to the two cases in Austria.
It said the number of thromboembolic events - marked by the
formation of blood clots - in people who have received the
AstraZeneca vaccine is no higher than that seen in the general
population, with 22 cases of such events being reported among
the 3 million people who have received it as of March 9.
Four other countries - Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and
Latvia - have stopped inoculations from the batch while an
investigation contines, the EU drug regulator said.
The batch of 1 million doses of the shot went to 17 EU
countries.
The Danish Medicines Agency said it had launched an
investigation into the vaccine together with corresponding
agencies in other EU-countries as well as EMA.
"It is important to emphasise that we have not opted out of
using the AstraZeneca vaccine, but that we are putting it on
hold," Brostrom said.
The agency said it had pushed back the final date for when
it expects all Danes to have been fully vaccinated by four weeks
to Aug. 15 as a result of the vaccine suspension.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Nikolaj Skydsgaard;
Editing by Alex Richardson and Nick Macfie)
