COVID-19: Denmark, Norway, Iceland Suspend AstraZeneca Vaccine Over Blood Clot Fears

Denmark, Norway and Iceland have temporarily suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine over concerns about patients developing post-jab blood clots.

Announcing its suspension in a statement, Denmark’s Health Authority said, “following reports of serious cases of blood clots” among people who had received the vaccine.

It stressed that the move was precautionary, and that “it has not been determined, at the time being, that there is a link between the vaccine and the blood clots”.

According to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as of March 9, 22 cases of blood clots had been reported among more than three million people vaccinated in the European Economic Area.

On Monday, Australia announced that it had suspended the use of a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines after a 49-year-old nurse died of “severe blood coagulation problems” days after receiving an anti-Covid shot.

Four other European countries namely; Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxemburg, have also suspended the use of vaccines from this batch, which was sent to 17 European countries and consisted of one million jabs.

However, Denmark suspended the use of all of its AstraZeneca supply, as did Iceland and Norway in subsequent announcements on Thursday citing similar concerns.

The EMA said on Wednesday that a preliminary probe showed that the batch of AstraZeneca vaccines used in Austria was likely not to blame for the nurse’s death.