(Adds details from report, background)
April 1 (Reuters) - British regulators on Thursday said they
have identified 30 cases of rare blood clot events after the use
of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, 25 more than the
agency previously reported.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said
it had received no such reports of clotting events following use
of the vaccine made by BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc
.
The health officials said they still believe the benefits of
the vaccine in the prevention of COVID-19 far outweigh any
possible risk of blood clots.
Some countries are restricting use of the AstraZeneca
vaccine while others have resumed inoculations, as
investigations into reports of rare, and sometimes severe, blood
clots continue.
On March 18, the UK medicines regulator said that there had
been five cases of a rare brain blood clot among 11 million
administered shots.
On Thursday, it put the count at 22 reports of cerebral
venous sinus thrombosis, an extremely rare brain clotting
ailment, and 8 reports of other clotting events associated with
low blood platelets out of a total of 18.1 million doses given.
(Reporting By Peter Henderson and Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by
Chris Reese and Daniel Wallis)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
