The authorities of North Macedonia have decided to ban vaccination against coronavirus with a drug from the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca of people under 60 years old due to the identification of a number of side effects. This was announced on Thursday, April 8, by the Minister of Health of the Republic, Venco Filipche.
“After the appearance of thrombotic reactions in a certain part of the younger (than 60-year-old residents. – Ed.) Population, the competent authorities decided to further vaccinate with this drug only people over 60 years old,” TASS quotes him.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, almost 139 thousand cases of infection (6.5% of the population) have been registered in the country, more than 4.1 thousand infected have died from complications caused by the coronavirus.
The first stage of immunization of the population against the new coronavirus infection in North Macedonia started on February 17 using an American-made drug Pfizer.
Earlier, on April 8, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) added a thrombosis warning to AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria COVID-19 vaccine.
On March 25, AstraZeneca lowered its COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness rate to 76%. The drug was initially reported to be 100% effective against severe coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. They also decided to change the name of the drug to Vaxzevria.