Mexico and Brazil have no plans to limit access to AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine after the UK drug regulator recommended it amid a potential risk of blood clots.
The statements come after the UK Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) recommended that the vaccine be used only in people over the age of 30 because of the potential link with rare blood clots.
The agency said it reviewed 79 reports of rare blood clots after the vaccine was administered, with 19 dead. Eleven of the 19 who died were under 50, while three were under 30.
Cofepris, a drug regulator in Mexico, said it is still reviewing the recommendations. However, “there are no plans to limit the use of AstraZeneca vaccines to any age or group,” according to Reuters reported. Mexico has acquired 3.5 million doses of vaccine so far.
Meanwhile, Brazilian health regulator Anvisa said the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risk and recommended its continued use. The media reported that Brazil has administered more than 4 million shots of the vaccine and has recorded only 47 coagulation events.
The UK recommendation came on the same day that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) safety panel concluded that a “possible link“It existed between rare blood clots and the vaccine.
Concerns about blood clots in a small number of patients caused more than a dozen countries to stop using the vaccine last month. Oxford University paused a clinical trial tested the vaccine on 300 children ages 6 to 17 while waiting for the MHRA’s opinion on blood clotting reports.
AstraZeneca has stated that its tests have found no causal link between the vaccine and blood clotting.