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* AZ shots to be limited to over 60s, high-priority groups
* Those who received first shot can still get second jab
* PEI registers 31 cases of rare brain blood disorder
(Adds Merkel comments, details)
By Patricia Weiss and Caroline Copley
BERLIN, March 30 (Reuters) - Germany will from Wednesday
limit the use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to
people aged 60 and above as well as high-priority groups
following further reports of a rare brain blood disorder.
"We have to be able trust the vaccines," Chancellor Angela
Merkel told journalists at a news conference on Tuesday. "And
transparency is the best way to deal with such a situation," she
added.
Acting on advice from Germany's vaccine committee, known as
STIKO, Germany's federal and state health ministries agreed that
under 60-year-olds should only receive the AstraZeneca vaccine
if they belong to high-priority groups, which include high-risk
patients and medical workers, in consultation with a doctor.
People aged below 60 who have already received a first
AstraZeneca shot have the option of either receiving their
second shot as planned, if they are high priority, or to wait
for STIKO to issue its recommendation, which it is expected to
do by the end of April.
The new limit on the use of AstraZeneca's vaccine is another
setback in Germany's already sluggish vaccination campaign.
Earlier, STIKO recommended the shot only be used for people
aged 60 and above "on the basis of available data on the
occurrence of rare but very severe thromboembolic side-effects".
STIKO is also looking into the possibility of administering
a second shot with a different COVID vaccine.
In a statement responding to the STIKO recommendation,
AstraZeneca said patient safety was its highest priority and
noted the European and UK medical agencies had not been able to
establish a causal relationship between the shot and clotting.
"We will continue to work with German authorities to address
any questions they may have," it added.
Germany will, however, allow anyone 60 and over to be given
the AstraZeneca shot in an effort to speed its vaccination
campaign. So far, it has only been vaccinating people aged over
70 and those in high priority groups.
BACK AND FORTH
Germany's decision followed further reports by the country's
vaccine regulator, the Paul Ehrlich Institute, of cases of blood
clots known as cerebral sinus vein thrombosis.
PEI said it had registered 31 cases of CSVT, which resulted
in nine deaths, out of some 2.7 million people who have received
the AstraZeneca vaccine. With the exception of two cases, all
reports involved women aged between 20 and 63.
Because use of the vaccine in Germany was initially limited
to those under 65, the shot has been administered among younger
women, particularly medical staff and teachers.
Many European countries briefly stopped using AstraZeneca's
vaccine earlier this month while investigating rare cases of
blood clots.
Both the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the World
Health Organization said this month the benefits of
AstraZeneca's vaccine outweighed the risks.
An EMA review covering 20 million people who took the
AstraZeneca shot in Britain and the European Economic Area found
seven cases of blood clots in multiple blood vessels and 18
cases of CVST.
Millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been
safely administered around the world.
Nearly all countries have since resumed use of the vaccine.
But France broke with guidance from the EMA and said on March 19
it should only be given to people aged 55 or older. France said
the decision was based on evidence that the clotting affected
younger people.
Canadian health officials said on Monday they would stop
offering AstraZeneca's shot to people under 55 and require a new
analysis of the shot's benefits and risks based on age and
gender.
Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder criticised the "back and
forth" around the vaccine, saying all recommendations showed
that the danger of severe illness from the coronavirus
outweighed any side-effects linked to the shot.
(Additional reporting by Paul Carrel, Andreas Rinke and Ludwig
Burger; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Alistair Bell)
