Ireland suspends AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine amid blood clot reports

Ireland's deputy chief medical officer, said that while there was no conclusive link between the vaccine and the cases, Irish health officials are recommending the suspension of the vaccine's rollout as a precaution.

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London: Irish health officials on Sunday (March 14) recommended the temporary suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of serious blood clotting after inoculations in Norway.

Dr Ronan Glynn, Ireland's deputy chief medical officer, said the recommendation was made after Norway's medicines agency reported four cases of blood clotting in adults after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.

He said that while there was no conclusive link between the vaccine and the cases, Irish health officials are recommending the suspension of the vaccine's rollout as a precaution. Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic authorities have taken similar precautionary steps.

AstraZeneca said in a statement Sunday that it "would like to offer its reassurance on the safety of its COVID-19 vaccine based on clear scientific evidence."

"The safety of the public will always come first," the British-Swedish biopharmaceutical company said, adding that it's "keeping this issue under close review but the available evidence does not confirm that the vaccine is the cause."

The company said that a review of safety data of more than 17 million people who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine in the European Union and the U.K. "has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country."

The World Health Organization and the European Union's medicines regulator have previously said that there was no link between the jab and an increased risk of developing a clot.