The measure comes “after reports of serious cases of blood clots among people vaccinated with AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine,” the Danish health authority said in a statement.
But he cautiously added that “it has not been determined, at this time, that there is a link between the vaccine and blood clots.”
Austria announced on Monday that it had suspended the use of a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines after a 49-year-old nurse died of “serious blood clotting problems” days after receiving a shot against Covid.
Four other European countries – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxembourg – have also suspended the use of vaccines from this batch, which was sent to 17 European countries and consisted of one million bites.
However, Denmark has suspended the use of all its AstraZeneca supplies.
“Unfinished use but paused use of the AstraZeneca vaccine”
“It is important to note that we have not completed the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, we are only on breaks,” said the director of the Danish health authority, Soren Brostrom.
Denmark said one person had died after receiving the vaccine. The EMA has launched an investigation into this death.
“There is extensive documentation showing that the vaccine is safe and efficient. But both we and the Danish Medicines Agency must act on information on possible serious side effects, both in Denmark and in other European countries,” he said. dir Brostrom.
The suspension, which will be reviewed in two weeks, is expected to slow Denmark’s vaccination campaign.
Copenhagen now expects to vaccinate its entire adult population in mid-August instead of early July, the health authority said.
The UK says the AstraZeneca vaccine is “safe and effective”
Meanwhile, the UK government on Thursday defended the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine after Denmark suspended the use of the spike and insisted it would continue its own deployment.
“We have made it clear that it is both safe and effective … and when people are asked to show up and take it, they should do so with confidence,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s official spokesman told reporters.
“And in fact, you’re starting to see the results of the vaccine program in terms of the (lower) number of cases we’re seeing across the country, the number of deaths, and the number of hospitalizations,” he said.
Britain launched the world’s first massive coronavirus vaccination action in December, largely based on the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab and another from Pfizer-BioNTech.
On Wednesday, the European drug surveillance dog EMA said a preliminary investigation showed that the batch of AstraZeneca vaccines used in Austria would probably not be to blame for the nurse’s death.
On March 9, 22 cases of blood clots had been reported among more than three million people vaccinated in the European Economic Area, the EMA said.