(Recasts and updates with new decision, details)
ROME, March 14 (Reuters) - Italy's northern region of
Piedmont said on Sunday said it would stop using a batch of
AstraZeneca coronavirus shots after a teacher died
following his vaccination on Saturday.
The region, around the northern city of Turin, had initially
suspended all AstraZeneca vaccines in order to identify and
isolate the batch from which the jab administered to the
teacher, from the town of Biella, came.
The decision, following similar moves elsewhere in Europe,
was precautionary and the region is awaiting the results of
checks which will verify whether there is a connection between
the death and the vaccination, the regional government said in
an online statement.
The statement did not specify what batch it had banned nor
did it say how the teacher died. Italian newspapers reported it
was batch ABV5811. A source close to the regional government
confirmed it was batch ABV5811.
The regional government's statement said that the Piedmont
region was also awaiting decisions from Italy's medicine's
agency Aifa and a regional health commission on the issue.
"It is an act of extreme prudence, while we verify whether
there is a connection. There have been no critical issues with
the administration of vaccines to date," Luigi Genesio Icardi,
head of regional health services, said in the statement.
Italy's medicine authority Aifa on Thursday banned the use
of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine belonging to the ABV2856
batch. Sources told Reuters the decision had been taken after
the deaths of two men in Sicily.
Aifa had said that the ban was precautionary, adding that no
link had been established between the vaccine and subsequent
"serious adverse events".
Authorities in Denmark, Norway and Iceland have suspended
the use of the vaccine over blood clotting issues, while Austria
stopped using a batch of AstraZeneca shots last week while
investigating a death from coagulation disorders.
The European Medicines Agency has said there is no
indication that the events were caused by the vaccination, a
view that was echoed by the World Health Organisation on Friday.
AstraZeneca also said it had found no evidence of increased risk
of deep-vein thrombosis.
Ireland also temporarily suspended AstraZeneca's vaccine
"out of an abundance of caution" on Sunday, citing reports from
the Norwegian Medicines Agency regarding a cluster of serious
blood clotting in some recipients there.
Earlier on Sunday, Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza
said vaccines in Italy and Europe were "effective and safe",
with all checks being carried out, when asked in an interview
about the ban.
(Reporting by Giulia Segreti; Editing by Nick Macfie and Jane
Merriman)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
