Denmark suspends using AstraZeneca vaccine entirely

Vials of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine at Copes Pharmacy and Travel Clinic in Streatham, south London. Picture date: Friday April 9, 2021.

Denmark has ceased giving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine amid concerns about rare cases of blood clots, making it the first European country to stop using the vaccine entirely.

The move is expected to delay the country's vaccine programme by several weeks.

In a statement, the Danish Health Authority said results of investigations into the blood clots “showed real and serious side effects."

“Based on an overall consideration, we have therefore chosen to continue the vaccination programme for all target groups without this vaccine.”

The European Union’s drug watchdog said last week it had found a possible link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), a brain blood clot, but said the risk of dying from Covid-19 was “much greater” than the risk of mortality from rare side effects.

As of April 4th, the European Medicines Agency had received reports of 169 cases of CVST after 34 million AstraZeneca doses had been administered in the European Economic Area.

Soeren Brostroem, Director of Denmark's National Board of Health, speaks during a press briefing in Copenhagen announcing the suspension.

The EU regulator, however, left it to individual states to make their own risk assessments and decide how to administer the vaccine.

Denmark was the first country to initially suspend all usage of the vaccine in March over safety concerns. It has also put Johnson & Johnson's vaccine on pause pending further investigations into a possible link to rare blood clot cases.

Danish Health Authority director Soren Brostrom said last month that Denmark "follows a precautionary principle" with regards to the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Almost one million Danes have received their first jabs, 77 per cent with Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine, 7.8 per cent with Moderna's shot and 15.3 per cent with AstraZeneca's, before it was suspended. 

- Reuters