Denmark on Thursday announced that it will temporarily suspend the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine after some patients developed blood clots since receiving the jab.
The Danish Health Authority said it would temporarily stop using the shot in its vaccination program as a precaution “after reports of severe cases of blood clots in people who have been vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca.”
Danish health minister Magnus Heunicke said it wasn’t clear whether the blood clots were linked to the vaccine.
Four other European countries — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxemburg — have also suspended the use of vaccines from this batch, which was sent to 17 European countries and consisting of one million jabs.
A spokesperson for AstraZeneca while speaking to CNBC, said, the company was aware of the statement made by the Danish health authority and that it’s currently investigating potential adverse effects related to the vaccine.
“Patient safety is the highest priority for AstraZeneca. Regulators have clear and stringent efficacy and safety standards for the approval of any new medicine, and that includes COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca. The safety of the vaccine has been extensively studied in Phase III clinical trials and Peer-reviewed data confirms the vaccine is generally well tolerated,” AstraZeneca said in a statement to CNBC.
The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is being relied upon heavily in the U.K. and European Union’s immunization rollouts. As of March 9, 22 cases of blood clots had been reported among more than three million people vaccinated in the European economic area, the European Medicine Agency (EMA) said.