Ireland suspends use of AstraZeneca Covid vaccine over blood clot fears

Decision based on report from Norway about a number of ‘serious blood-clotting events after vaccination’

Access to Salthill beach is closed amid the spread of coronavirus in Galway, Ireland. Reuters

Emergency ambulances at a Dublin City Hospital. Ireland is currently witnessing a surge of Covid-19 cases after the Christmas season. EPA

An empty city centre in Galway, Ireland. Reuters

Catholic worshippers protest with prayer by participating in a rosary rally on New Year's Day outside Galway Cathedral asking for the return of public Mass. Reuters

79 year old Annie Lynch from Dublin pictured after being the first person to receive the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in Ireland, on 29 December 2020. EPA

Pedestrians shop on December 31 in advance of a new coronavirus lockdown in Dublin. AFP

Members of the public walk down a quiet shopping street in Dublin on December 31. AFP

Deborah Cross gives an injection of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to clinical nurse manager Bernie Waterhouse at St James's Hospital in Dublin. AFP

Ireland suspended use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on Sunday citing reports of blood clotting after inoculations in Norway.

Irish health minister Stephen Donnelly said the decision was based on information supplied by Oslo late on Saturday night.

Ireland’s National Immunisation Advisory Committee recommended pausing use of the AstraZeneca vaccine as a precaution after “a report from the Norwegian Medicines Agency of four new reports of serious blood clotting events in adults after vaccination”.

“It has not been concluded that there is any link between the Covid-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca and these cases,” Ireland’s deputy chief medical officer, Ronan Glynn, said.

“However, acting on the precautionary principle, and pending receipt of further information, the NIAC has recommended the temporary deferral of the Covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca vaccination programme in Ireland.”

Of the 570,000 vaccine doses of Covid-19 administered in Ireland, 109,000 were AstraZeneca shots.

“Analysis of our safety data that covers reported cases from more than 17 million doses of vaccine administered has shown no evidence of an increased risk” of blood clot conditions, an AstraZeneca spokesman said.

“In fact, the reported numbers of these types of events for Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca are lower than the number that would have occurred naturally in the unvaccinated population.”