Germany,France,Italy Suspend Use Of AstraZeneca`s Covid-19 Vaccine

Germany, Italy, France, and Spain joined the ranks of European countries that have temporarily stopped the use of Covid-19 vaccine made by AstraZeneca PLC over blood clot concerns dealing another blow to the continent`s sluggish vaccination rollout and threatening the credibility of the vaccine.

These suspensions started last week with Denmark being the first country to suspend the vaccine. Other countries such as Ireland, Norway, Netherlands, and Iceland have also said that they would wait on the medicines regulator to investigate a number of serious blood clotting issues among people who had received the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The European Medicines Agency is expected by Thursday to give its ruling on the safety and potential risks based on a review of the reported cases. The agency however on Monday urged the countries to continue using the vaccine citing that the advantages outweigh possible risks. It stated that there was no evidence of a link between the reported blood clots cases and the vaccine.

AstraZeneca which developed the vaccine in partnership with Oxford University has said the number of blood clotting among the vaccinated personnel is lower than that of the general population stating that the large-scale human trials didn`t raise flags about blood clotting as a risk.