Spain has used up all suspect AstraZeneca vaccine batch, minister says

MADRID, March 12 (Reuters) - Spanish health services have
already administered all the doses from a batch of AstraZeneca's
COVID-19 vaccine that some countries suspect may cause
severe side effects, Health Minister Carolina Darias said on
Friday.

Several Nordic countries suspended use of the AstraZeneca
shot on Thursday following reports of the formation of blood
clots in some people who had been vaccinated.

"This batch was already supplied and distributed," Darias
said on Spanish RNE radio station on Friday.

She said the country's monitoring system to follow up on
people after vaccination had only detected light side effects
such as headaches, dizziness and intestinal troubles.

A police labour union said on Friday the batch in question
was mainly used to inoculate police officers, and it asked the
Health Ministry to closely follow the health of the officers who
got the jab.

Austria earlier stopped using a batch of AstraZeneca shots
while it investigated a death from a clotting disorder and a
case of pulmonary embolism.

Europe's EMA medicines regulator has backed the drug and
said the benefits outweigh the risks.

A World Health Organization spokeswoman said that a WHO
expert advisory committee was looking at AstraZeneca's vaccine
after some countries paused distribution of it, but that there
was no reason not to use it.

Darias said Spain would wait for further guidance from EMA
before taking any step against using the vaccine and insisted
the number of blood clot cases among vaccinated people was not
higher than in the general population.

An Andalusian regional health official said on Thursday he
had held back on using about 1,200 vaccines from the batch until
he had further information, local newspaper Diario de Cordoba
reported.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by Nathan Allen and Hugh
Lawson)