Ireland suspended the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine on Sunday as a precaution, after cases of blood clots were reported in Norway, without a proven link at this stage.
“The administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 is temporarily postponed from this morning Sunday March 14,” a spokesperson for the Minister of Health told AFP.
This decision came after the recommendation of the committee responsible for the vaccination program in Ireland to implement this measure, already in force in several countries, in the name of the “precautionary principle”, according to a statement from the chief medical officer Ronan Glynn.
According to the latest official figures released on Wednesday, 109,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were administered in Ireland, out of a total of 570,000 doses, all vaccines combined.
Confined for the third time in more than two and a half months, the country deplores a little more than 4,500 deaths from the coronavirus for a total population of five million inhabitants.
The recommendation from the Irish health authorities came after a report from the Norwegian Health Products Agency reporting “four new serious cases of blood clots in adults” who received an injection of the vaccine from the Anglo-Swedish laboratory.
Norway, like Iceland or Denmark, announced Thursday the suspension of injections of AstraZeneca vaccine, invoking the principle of “precaution” because of fears related to the formation of blood clots.
Bulgaria followed suit on Friday and Thailand delayed its campaign.
Asked Sunday, the pharmaceutical group replied that an “analysis of our safety data on more than 17 million doses of vaccine administered has shown no evidence of an increased risk” in terms of blood clots.
“In fact, the numbers on this guy [de problème médical] are much lower in those who are vaccinated compared to what would be expected in the population as a whole, ”he added.
The WHO said on Friday that there was “no reason not to use” this vaccine and that no cause and effect relationship on the formation of blood clots had so far been find.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), however, estimated that a causal link was “likely” in at least some of “41 reports of possible anaphylaxis seen among around 5 million vaccinations in the UK”.
She argues that severe allergies should be added to the list of possible side effects of the vaccine, but it remains safe.
These new setbacks for the AstraZeneca vaccine add to production and delivery problems.
On Friday, the laboratory announced a further drop in deliveries to the European Union, where the vaccine was authorized at the end of January.
Citing “export restrictions” for vaccines manufactured outside the EU, he announced that he could deliver only 100 million doses during the six months ended in June, including only 70 million of the 180 million initially planned for the second quarter.
In January, the group had already reduced its objectives for the first quarter incriminating a problem of “yield” in its Belgian factory.