Last checked at 
* Thailand to proceed with AztraZeneca shot, Indonesia holds
back
* Denmark and Netherlands give more details of clotting
issue
* Germany says it will continue using vaccine, discuss this
week
* AstraZeneca says large review shows no increased risk
By Stephanie Nebehay and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen
GENEVA/COPENHAGEN, March 15 (Reuters) - The World Health
Organization appealed to countries on Monday not to pause
vaccination campaigns after two more European nations and one in
Asia joined a handful which have suspended use of AstraZeneca's
COVID-19 vaccine over safety fears.
Thailand announced plans on Monday to go ahead with the
Anglo-Swedish firm's shot but Indonesia said it would wait after
Ireland and the Netherlands announced suspensions on Sunday.
Denmark and Norway have reported isolated cases of bleeding,
blood clots and a low platelet count after the AstraZeneca
vaccine. Iceland and Bulgaria had earlier suspended its use
while Austria and Italy have stopped using particular batches.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom say they have no
concerns.
The WHO said its advisory panel was reviewing reports
related to the shot and would release its findings as soon as
possible. But it said it was unlikely to change its
recommendations, issued last month, for widespread use,
including in countries where the South African variant of the
virus may reduce its efficacy.
"As of today, there is no evidence that the incidents are
caused by the vaccine and it is important that vaccination
campaigns continue so that we can save lives and stem severe
disease from the virus," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said.
AstraZeneca's shot was among the first and cheapest to be
developed and launched at volume since the coronavirus was first
identified in central China at the end of 2019 and is set to be
the mainstay of vaccination programmes in much of the developing
world. The virus has killed more than 2.7 million people.
Thailand became the first country outside Europe to delay
rolling out the vaccine on Friday, when its political leaders
were due to have the first shots, but the government said on
Monday they would receive the AstraZeneca vaccine on
Tuesday.
Indonesia, however, said it would delay administering the
shot due to the reports of blood clots among some recipients in
Europe and would await a review from the WHO.
The WHO had already said there was no indication the events
were caused by the vaccination, a view also expressed by the
European Medicines Agency (EMA), which said the number of
reported blood clots was no higher than seen in the general
population.
The handful of reported side-effects in Europe have upset
vaccination programmes already under pressure over slow rollouts
and vaccine scepticism in some countries.
The Netherlands said on Monday it had seen 10 cases of
possible noteworthy adverse side-effects from the AstraZeneca
vaccine, hours after the government put its vaccination
programme on hold following reports of potential side-effects in
other countries.
Denmark reported "highly unusual" symptoms in a 60-year-old
citizen who died from a blood clot after receiving the vaccine,
the same phrase used on Saturday by Norway about three people
under the age of 50 it said were being treated in hospital.
"It was an unusual course of illness around the death that
made the Danish Medicines Agency react," the agency said in a
statement late on Sunday.
AstraZeneca Plc said earlier it had conducted a
review covering more than 17 million people vaccinated in the
European Union and the UK which had shown no evidence of an
increased risk of blood clots.
POLITICAL ROW
In Germany, the question marks over the vaccine caused a
political row, with the leader of the Bavarian Christian Social
Union (CSU), Markus Soeder, saying the country needed clear
guidance from its own experts.
Noting that some other EU countries had stopped using the
vaccine, Soeder told a news conference: "That's why there has to
be an extra clear statement in Germany: is the vaccine good or
bad?"
The health ministry said the country was continuing to use
the vaccine according to EMA guidelines.
The reports of potential safety risks are taken seriously
and data is examined constantly, a ministry spokesman told
Reuters. Further proceedings would be discussed with the
European and the national vaccine regulators this week, he said.
Investigations into potential side-effects are complicated
as the history of each case and circumstances surrounding a
death or illness are examined. The Austrian authorities have
said their review of the AstraZeneca batch will take about two
weeks.
The EMA has said that as of March 10, a total of 30 cases of
blood clotting had been reported among close to 5 million people
vaccinated with the AstraZeneca shot in the European Economic
Area, which links 30 European countries.
The WHO said that as of March 12, more than 300 million
doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered around the
world with no cases of death found to have been caused by any of
them.
(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat in BANKOK and Andreas Rinke
and Paul Carrel in BERLIN, Toby Sterling in AMSTERDAM, Jacob
Gronholt-Pedersen in COPENHAGEN and Stanley Widianto in JAKARTA;
writing by Philippa Fletcher; editing by Nick Macfie)
