Suspensions follow reports that some people developed blood clots after receiving the injection, but the WHO says no proven link and urges people not to panic.
Germany, France, Italy and Spain have discontinued AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine following several reports of blood clots in people receiving the injection in Europe.
Monday’s flurry of suspensions came after a number of other countries, mainly in Europe, halted their rollout late last week.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has backed the use of the vaccine and said it had seen no evidence that the shot caused clotting in some people who received it.
The UN health agency is reviewing reports regarding shooting, urging countries not to suspend vaccinations, as the top scientist said people should not panic.
EU members stop shots
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said the country has suspended the use of the shot on the advice of the national vaccine regulator, the Paul Ehrlich Institute.
The institute had called for further investigation of seven reported cases of blood clots in the brains of people who had received this vaccination.
“Today’s decision is purely a precautionary measure,” said Spahn.
France and Italy announced similar measures shortly afterwards.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the use of the AstraZeneca injection as a precautionary measure would be suspended until at least Tuesday afternoon, when the European Union’s medicines regulator – the European Medicines Agency (EMA) – will issue its recommendation on the vaccine.
Macron did not elaborate on the reasoning behind the decision, but said at a press conference that he hoped France would be able to vaccinate again with AstraZeneca injections “soon”.
The Italian drug authority AIFA, meanwhile, said it was implementing its own suspension as a “provisional and precautionary measure” pending rulings from the EMA.
The announcement followed the seizure of hundreds of thousands of doses of the vaccine by Italian prosecutors in the northern region of Piedmont, where a teacher died following his vaccination.
Experts are investigating whether there is a link between his death and the vaccination.
Late Monday, Spain’s Health Minister Carolina Darias said the country is suspending use of the vaccine for two weeks as a “precautionary measure.”
She said the decision would remain in effect until the EMA “analyzes the recent incidence of blood clots, particularly over the weekend.”
AstraZeneca has said there is no cause for concern with its vaccine, which is jointly produced with the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and that there were fewer cases of thrombosis in those given the injection than in the general population.
Peter Drobac of the University of Oxford told Al Jazeera that the AstraZeneca vaccine has undergone “rigorous clinical trials” and that blood clots were not identified as a problem.
“The security break, I think it is certainly the prerogative of the regulators in these countries. However, we have learned from the World Health Organization, the European Medicines Agency and others that the benefits of vaccination clearly outweigh the risks at this point, ”said Drobac.
WHO insists on calm
The EMA and WHO have also said that the available data does not indicate that the vaccine caused the blood clots and that people should be immunized with the injection.
The WHO on Monday called on countries not to suspend vaccinations against a disease that has caused more than 2.7 million deaths worldwide. The UN Health Agency’s top scientist reiterated that there are no documented deaths related to COVID-19 vaccines.
“We don’t want people to panic,” Soumya Swaminathan said, adding that so far there is no association between so-called “thromboembolic events” reported in some countries and COVID-19 recordings.
However, the reassurances do not seem to allay the doubts, as several countries have temporarily discontinued the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in recent days.
Denmark, Norway, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland and Bulgaria were among those who stopped using the shot.