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By Gwladys Fouche and Terje Solsvik
OSLO, March 13 (Reuters) - Three health workers in Norway
who recently received the AstraZeneca vaccine against
COVID-19 are being treated in hospital for bleeding, blood clots
and a low count of blood platelets, Norwegian health authorities
said on Saturday.
Norway halted on Thursday the rollout of that vaccine,
following a similar move by Denmark. Iceland later followed
suit.
"We do not know if the cases are linked to the vaccine,"
Sigurd Hortemo, a senior doctor at the Norwegian Medicines
Agency told a news conference held jointly with the Norwegian
Institute of Public Health.
All three individuals were under the age of 50.
The European medicine regulator EMA would investigate the
three incidents, Hortemo added.
"They have very unusual symptoms: bleeding, blood clots and
a low count of blood platelets," Steinar Madsen, Medical
Director at the Norwegian Medicines Agency told broadcaster NRK.
"They are quite sick...We take this very seriously," he
said, adding authorities had received notification of the cases
on Saturday.
AstraZeneca was not immediately available for comment.
Before Denmark's and Norway's move, Austria stopped using a
batch of AstraZeneca shots while investigating a death from
coagulation disorders and an illness from a pulmonary embolism.
Still, EMA on Thursday said the vaccine's benefits
outweighed its risks and could continue to be administered.
Europe is struggling to speed up a vaccine rollout after
delivery delays from Pfizer and AstraZeneca, even as a
spike in cases amid a more contagious virus variant has
triggered fresh lockdowns in countries like Italy and France.