Ireland halts use of AstraZeneca vaccine following blood clot reports in Norway

Ireland has temporarily suspended the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine following a report from Norway of patients developing blood clots post inoculation.

The Norwegian Medicines Agency on Saturday said there were four new cases of serious blood clotting in adults after taking the vaccine.

The Irish National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) made the directive as a precaution though it "has not been concluded that there is any link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and these cases," it said in a statement.

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Ireland's NIAC is set to meet again on Sunday (local time) to further discuss the suspension of the vaccine, it added.

Ireland is the latest in the string of European countries who have decided to partially or fully suspend the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine following reports of patients developing blood clots after inoculations.

AstraZeneca says it has examined the data of those vaccinated across the EU and the UK and says it shows no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.

"Around 17 million people in the EU and UK have now received our vaccine, and the number of cases of blood clots reported in this group is lower than the hundreds of cases that would be expected among the general population. The nature of the pandemic has led to increased attention in individual cases and we are going beyond the standard practices for safety monitoring of licensed medicines in reporting vaccine events, to ensure public safety," the company's Chief Medical Officer Ann Taylor said in a statement.

Health authorities in Austria were the first to sound the alarm on the potential dangers of the vaccine, suspending on Tuesday one batch of doses.

Italy on Friday banned the use of vaccines from a specific batch of AstraZeneca doses following the death of a serviceman in Sicily, who had died of cardiac arrest one day after receiving his first dose of the vaccine.

Denmark however on Thursday became the first European country to temporarily suspend the entire rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

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The European Union's medicines regulator, the EMA, is currently investigating whether the shot could be linked to a number of reports of blood clots.

AstraZeneca has robustly defended its vaccine, saying in a statement Sunday that there were no confirmed quality issues for any batch of the vaccine, and "no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or thrombocytopenia" for people who had received it.

European and UK medicines regulators have also said the link between the vaccine and blood clots has not been confirmed and that rollouts should continue.

The Federal Government has said the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe for Australians to use. Health officials said last week there was no reason to change Australia's classification of the AstraZeneca vaccine.