Ireland, Netherlands Suspend Use of AstraZeneca Vaccine

By Staff, Agencies

Dutch and Irish health officials said they had suspended the use of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine on Sunday for two weeks after reports of "possible side effects" in Denmark and Norway.

"Based on new information, the Dutch Medicines Authority advised, as a precautionary measure and pending further investigation, to suspend the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine," the Netherlands’ Health Ministry said in a statement.

"The crucial question is whether these are complaints after or because of the vaccination. There should be no doubt about the vaccines," Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said in the statement.

"We still need to be careful, so it is wise to press the pause button now as a precaution."

A spokesman for Ireland's health ministry told AFP that the rollout had been "temporarily deferred" after the country's advisory panel recommended a suspension because of concerns raised by Norwegian officials.

Norwegian officials said on Saturday the country had reports of people "bleeding under the skin" and "severe cases of blood clots or brain hemorrhages in younger people" who had received the shot.

Countries including Norway and Denmark have already suspended their rollouts of the AstraZeneca vaccine because of concerns about blood clots. 

No similar cases are currently known in the Netherlands, the ministry said, but it advised people who had received the vaccine to contact their doctor if they develop "unexpected and/or unknown" symptoms after three days.

The World Health Organization [WHO] said on Friday that there was "no reason not to use" the vaccine developed by Swedish-British laboratory AstraZeneca and Oxford University. AstraZeneca says its vaccine is safe.