Copenhagen | Denmark has announced that it will wait before a possible resumption of anti-COVID vaccination with AstraZeneca, yet declared “safe and effective” by the European regulator.
“Our decision to suspend vaccination with AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine until week 12 (March 22-28) remains in place,” Danish Health Agency director Sundhedsstyrelsen said, Søren Brostrøm, in a statement released late Thursday evening.
“In the coming days, Sundhedsstyrelsen and the Danish Medicines Agency will assess the impact of the opinion of the EMA (European Medicines Agency) on AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for the Danish vaccination program “, he added.
Last week, Denmark was the first country to completely suspend vaccination with AstraZeneca, before being emulated by fifteen countries, mainly European.
According to the Danish authorities, who must answer questions from the press early Friday afternoon, even if it confirms the benefits of the vaccine, the European regulator “does not exclude a link between the few known cases of blood clots rare but serious and vaccination with AstraZeneca vaccine ”.
Denmark is currently examining ten cases, including one fatal, in which blood clots or symptoms of blood clots occurred after vaccination, in more than 140,000 people who received a dose of the vaccine from the Swedish-British laboratory.
All Nordic countries except Finland had suspended use of the vaccine due to fears of the blood clots. Sweden and Norway have already announced that they will wait before a possible recovery, while Iceland has not yet made its position known.