Australia, insurance, car, home, live, holidays

Norway has halted its rollout of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.Credit:Getty Images

“A careful review of all available safety data of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and UK with COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca has shown no evidence of an increased risk ofpulmonary embolism,deep vein thrombosis or thrombocytopenia,in any defined age group,gender,batch or in any particular country,” the statement on Sunday (Monday AEDT),said.

Authorities in Denmark,Norway and Iceland have suspended the use of the vaccine over clotting issues,while Austria stopped using a batch of AstraZeneca shots last week while investigating a death from coagulation disorders.

Ireland on Sunday temporarily suspended AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine “out of an abundance of caution”.

The Netherlands also joined the list of countries suspending the use of the vaccine,saying it will not be used until at least March 29 as a precaution.

The announcement will lead to delays in rolling out shots in the Netherlands,which had pre-ordered 12 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine.

Health authorities had scheduled around 290,000 AstraZeneca injections in the coming two weeks.

No cases of blood clotting disorders had been found yet in the Netherlands,the Dutch Health ministry said,adding there was no proof yet of a direct link between the vaccine and health effects reported in Denmark and Norway.

“We can’t allow any doubts about the vaccine,” Dutch Health minister Hugo de Jonge said.

“We have to make sure everything is right,so it is wise to pause for now.”

AstraZeneca said additional testing has and is being conducted by the company and the European health authorities and none of the re-tests have shown cause for concern.

There are also no confirmed issues related to quality of any of its COVID-19 vaccine batches used across Europe and rest of the world,the company said.

Italy’s northern region of Piedmont said on Sunday said it would stop using a batch of AstraZeneca coronavirus shots after a teacher died following his vaccination on Saturday.

The region,around the northern city of Turin,had initially suspended all AstraZeneca vaccines in order to identify and isolate the batch from which the jab administered to the teacher,from the town of Biella,came.

The decision,following similar moves elsewhere in Europe,was precautionary and the region is awaiting the results of checks which will verify whether there is a connection between the death and the vaccination,the regional government said in an online statement.

The statement did not specify what batch it had banned nor did it say how the teacher died. Italian newspapers reported it was batch ABV5811. A source close to the regional government confirmed it was batch ABV5811.

The regional government’s statement said that the Piedmont region was also awaiting decisions from Italy’s medicine’s agency Aifa and a regional health commission on the issue.

Reuters