Six European countries have temporarily halted distribution of AstraZeneca PLC’s (LON:AZN) Covid-19 vaccine due to concern over possible side effects.
Denmark today followed Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxembourg in pausing the use of a 1mln-dose batch sent to a total of 17 countries within the EU.
On Monday, Austria suspended vaccinations using the Astra/Oxford vaccine after a 49-year old nurse died from severe blood clots.
Three other instances of thromboembolism have been recorded in people after they had been given the vaccine, though the European Medicines Agency said there was no evidence to link the events.
“There is currently no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions, which are not listed as side effects with this vaccine", the EMA said, which added that the incidence of blood clots was no higher than seen in the general population.
Denmark said it would pause use of the vaccine for 14 days. Health minister Magnus Heunicke said the suspension measure was a precaution as the authorities start an investigation to see whether the blood clots are a side effect of the vaccine.
Europe’s vaccination programme has been hampered by the lack of supplies of both the Astra vaccine and the mRNA alternatives manufactured by Pfizer/BioNTech and the recently approved Moderna jab.
AstraZeneca has also been accused of diverting supplies away from the EU with the Italian government halting the export of 250,000 doses to Australia in a row over ‘vaccine nationalism’.
Pfizer/BioNTech, meanwhile, received a further endorsement of their vaccine as Israel today said it was 97% effective against the virus.
Israel has been at the forefront of the vaccination campaign with 43% of its population having now received the required two doses of vaccine.