COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Denmark will become the first country to stop completely administering AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday after its possible link to very rare cases of blood clots, several Danish media reported on Wednesday. citing unnamed sources.
The decision, which would eliminate the firing of Denmark’s vaccination plan, could delay the country’s vaccine launch by up to four weeks, according to previous statements by health agencies.
The Danish health authorities will hold an information meeting in the media at 1200 GMT where they are expected to announce the decision to stop the use of the vaccine and present a new timetable for the country’s vaccination program.
The European Union drug watchdog said last week that it had found a possible link between the vaccine and very rare blood clots, but said the risk of dying from COVID-19 was “much higher” than the risk of mortality from rare side effects.
The regulator, however, left it up to the states to make their own risk assessments and decide how to administer the vaccine based on local conditions that vary widely across the block.
A number of countries around the world, including France and Germany, have resumed the administration of the shooting to some age groups, mainly those over 50 or 60 years old.
Denmark, a country of 5.8 million people, is reopening schools, restaurants, shopping malls and cultural activities, after the daily infection rate dropped to 500-600 a day from several thousand in December.
The director of the Danish Health Authority, Soren Brostrom, said last month that Denmark “follows a precautionary principle” with regard to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
It was the first country to initially suspend all vaccine use in March for safety reasons and also paused the Johnson & Johnson vaccine pending further investigations into a possible link to rare cases of clots. of blood.
Nearly one million Danes received their first blows, 77% with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 7.8% with Moderna shots and 15.3% with AstraZeneca, before its suspension.
Reports by Nikolaj Skydsgaard and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Edited by Hugh Lawson and Toby Chopra