COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Denmark became the first country to stop using AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine altogether on Wednesday, following news of its possible link with very rare cases of blood clots, health authorities said.
The decision will postpone Denmark’s planned shutdown of Denmark’s vaccination schedule to early August from July 25, they said.
Results of research on the blood clots “showed real and serious side effects,” said head of the health department, Soren Brostrom, in a statement.
“Based on a general assessment, we have therefore chosen to continue the vaccination program for all target groups without this vaccine.”
The European Union drug watchdog last week said it had found a possible link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), a brain blood clot, but said the risk of dying from COVID-19 was ‘much greater’ than the risk. of mortality from rare side effects.
On April 4, the European Medicines Agency had received reports of 169 cases of CVST after 34 million doses of Astrazeneca were administered in the European Economic Area.
However, the EU regulator left it to individual states to make their own risk assessments and decide how to administer the vaccine.
Many countries in Europe and elsewhere have started to give the injection again, with some restricting its use to certain age groups, usually those over 50 or over 60.
Denmark was the first country to initially discontinue use of the vaccine in March due to safety concerns, and has also put the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on hold pending further research into a possible similar link to blood clots.
Nearly one million of the country’s 5.8 million residents have received their first injections, 77% will receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 7.8% Moderna and 15.3% AstraZeneca.
Denmark is in the process of relaxing restrictions after the daily COVID-19 contamination rate dropped from several thousand to 500-600 in December.