Ireland and The Netherlands on Sunday joined the list with the four countries that have already suspended use of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine after reports of unexpected possible side effects from the injection.
Ireland became the latest country to stop using AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine on Sunday, temporarily suspending the shot "out of an abundance of caution" after reports from Norway of serious blood clotting in some recipients there.
Three health workers in Norway who had recently received the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine were being treated in hospital for bleeding, blood clots and a low count of blood platelets, its health authorities said on Saturday.
Ireland's National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) recommended the temporary deferral pending the receipt of more information from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the coming days.
Irish authorities received some reports of clotting similar to those seen in Europe last week but nothing as serious as the cases in Norway, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn said.
"It may be nothing, we may be overreacting and I sincerely hope that in a week's time that we will have been accused of being overly-cautious," Glynn told national broadcaster RTE.
Dutch Health officials also said they had suspended the use of Astra Zeneca's coronavirus vaccine on Sunday for two weeks after "possible side effects" were reported in Denmark and Norway.
No evidence as yet
AstraZeneca on Sunday said it had conducted a review covering more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and the UK which had shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.
Denmark, Norway and Iceland have suspended the use of the vaccine over clotting issues, while Thailand became the first country in Asia to do so on Friday, delaying its AstraZeneca rollout over the safety concerns in Europe.
In Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo postponed the starting date of their AstraZeneca rollout until more information could be given about possible side effects.
Italy's northern region of Piedmont on Sunday said it would stop using a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines after a teacher died following his vaccination on Saturday. Austria also stopped using a particular batch last week.
The EMA said on Friday that there is no indication that the events were caused by the vaccination, a view that was echoed by the World Health Organisation.
(with newswires)
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