Spain, Germany, France and Italy are interrupting the roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine

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Spain will stop using the vaccine for two weeks, Health Minister Carolina Darias announced in a press conference on national television on Monday.

It’s a “temporary and preventive” suspension, she said, “until the risks can be assessed by the European Medicines Agency.”

After German Health Minister Jens Spahn initially advocated the safety of the vaccine, he said on Monday that the country would interrupt vaccinations as a precaution, following reports of a handful of cases of blood clots in people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca shot. Denmark and Norway.

France and Italy also halted their roll-out of the vaccine on Monday, pending review by the EU’s medicines regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), although the body later reiterated its advice that countries stick to the rollout.

“We have decided to suspend the use of AstraZeneca as a precautionary measure and hope to resume it soon if EMA advice permits,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at Monday’s press conference.

The suspensions came hours after prosecutors in northern Italy ordered the seizure of a batch of the vaccine, citing a man who fell ill and died after being shot. The Italian medicines agency also suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine “as a precaution and temporarily” ahead of the EMA meeting, Italian medicines agency AIFA announced Monday.

Ireland is discontinuing use of the AstraZeneca vaccine following reports of blood clots in Norway

Much of Europe has now temporarily halted the shot, following the death of a woman in Denmark who has not yet been linked to a vaccine. Another death was also reported in Norway on Monday, along with a handful of non-fatal cases in both countries.

The suspensions run counter to advice from the World Health Organization, the EMA and the pharmaceutical giant itself, all of which have said there is no evidence of a link to clotting and that the rollout should continue while the reports are investigated.

“As of today, there is no evidence that the incidents are caused by the vaccine and it is important that the vaccination campaigns continue so that we can save lives and fight the serious illness of the virus,” WHO said in a statement to CNN. The organization added that it was reviewing the latest reports, but said any change to its recommendations would be “unlikely.”

The EMA also reiterated that countries should continue their rollout, adding that it would meet on Thursday to discuss the concerns, but that the benefits of vaccinations outweigh the potential risks.

“While the investigation is ongoing, the EMA currently continues to believe that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing COVID-19, with the associated risk of hospitalization and death, outweigh the risks of side effects,” the agency said.

More than 11 million AstraZeneca shots have been delivered in the UK, which is now one of the few major European countries still behind the vaccine. Spahn said he spoke to his UK counterpart before stopping Germany’s rollout.

AstraZeneca doubled the safety of its shots Sunday, saying a careful evaluation of the 17 million people vaccinated with it in the EU and Britain again found there was “no evidence” of a link to blood clots.

It found that of those millions of people, 15 cases of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and 22 cases of pulmonary embolism have been reported after vaccination; lower than the number that would naturally be expected within that population size.

Nonetheless, the death of a woman in Denmark has prompted a number of countries to pause their rollout until assessments are carried out. The Danish Medicines Agency said Monday that the woman in question had an “unusual” combination of symptoms before she died.

AstraZeneca says 'no evidence' of risk of blood clots from vaccine as countries suspend its use

Later on Monday, Norwegian hospital Rikshospitalet reported the death of another inoculated person with severe cases of blood clots, bleeding and low platelet count.

In the Netherlands, a drug-monitoring laboratory said it has received reports of 10 cases of blood clots in people who have received the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, but none had the low platelet disorder reportedly seen in Norway and Denmark.

Last weekend, Ireland and the Netherlands joined the group of countries that are discontinuing their use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The chairman of Ireland’s vaccination advisory committee said it had taken the step to “maintain confidence” in the country’s vaccination program. The Dutch government said its action was “as a precaution” and would last two weeks; this came just days after Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said there was “no cause for concern” about the shot.

The UK has been by far in the lead in administering the AstraZeneca vaccine, with more than 11 million people receiving a dose, and it has also assisted. Field data from the country has also shown that it has a significant impact on reducing Covid-19 hospital admissions.

A single dose of the vaccine reduces the risk of hospitalization from Covid-19 by more than 80% in people over the age of 80, data from Public Health England earlier this month showed. The vaccine is given in two doses, although countries differ in how far apart they spread those injections.

Wave of infections in Europe

The episodes were the latest example of the AstraZeneca vaccine that distributed Europe. In the space of a few weeks, several EU countries angrily penalized the company for not providing the full amount of doses promised; cast then had doubts about its effectiveness in older people receding; blocked shipments of the vaccine from leaving the continent; and now halted their rollout due to concerns about blood clots.

The continent’s latest concerns about the vaccine come at a difficult time, with a third wave of infections threatening to hit Europe a year after the start of the pandemic.

Italians are back under lockdown restrictions and millions have canceled their Easter plans again, in scenes that seem eerie to last March, when Italy became the first European country to restrict people’s movement when the coronavirus was rampant.

Citizens were not allowed to travel between regions as of Monday and were told the entire country would be considered a “red zone” over Easter weekend.

Italy’s new Prime Minister Mario Draghi had said the rules were necessary because “unfortunately we are dealing with a new wave of infections”, a bleak reality after 12 months of pandemic woes.
A Covid-19 patient will be transported in an ambulance at a Paris airport on Sunday, prior to their transfer to a hospital in another region.

The restrictions mean that again many Italians cannot celebrate Easter with their families. “I am aware that today’s measures will affect children’s education, the economy and also the psychological state of all of us,” Draghi admitted last Friday when the measures were passed by his cabinet.

But the picture is equally bleak across Europe, with several countries trying to respond to an increase in infections.

Germany again registered an increase in the number of cases on Monday. In France, hospital admissions are on the rise again – and the situation turned so grim in Paris this weekend that leaders began evacuating about 100 Covid-19 patients from the region, citing the increased pressure on hospitals.

The patients will be transferred to “other regions where the situation in ICUs is less tense,” said French government spokesman Gabriel Attal on Sunday. Parisian hospitals have already canceled many surgeries to address the outbreak, with Health Minister Olivier Véran saying a coronavirus patient was admitted to their intensive care unit every 12 minutes.

The main cause of the wave of infections across the continent appears to be the more contagious coronavirus variant first identified in the UK; in France, the strand now represents 66% of cases, according to the latest official data.

That variant wreaked havoc in Britain over Christmas and the start of the New Year, quickly adding to the UK death toll, the highest in Europe with more than 125,000 fatalities.

A stringent lockdown and rapid vaccination urge have since combined to dramatically reduce UK cases and ease pressure on hospitals.

CNN’s Nicola Ruotolo, Niamh Kennedy, Paula Newton, Mick Krever and James Frater contributed to the reporting.

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