Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : April 2, 2021 7:41 PM IST
AstraZeneca vaccine is one of the two vaccines currently being administered to the eligible population in India.
The use of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which is manufactured and used in India as Covishield, has been halted in many European countries following reports of unusual blood clots after the jab. However, top health agencies, including the World Health organisation (WHO) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), have clarified that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and effective, and not associated with higher risk of developing blood clots. Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has also said that the risk of blood clots associated with the vaccine is "very small" and the benefits of the vaccination outweigh any risks.
According to the agency, so far, over 31 million people in Britain have received the first dose of the vaccination, of which more than 18 million were given the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. Among those who received that AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine doses, only around 30 cases of blood clots were reported till March 24 including 22 cases of cerebral vein thrombosis and eight other types of thrombosis - the agency confirmed on Thursday. Notably, the UK government is currently using two Covid-19 vaccines, Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford University/AstraZeneca, to vaccinate its people against the deadly viral disease.
"On the basis of this ongoing review, the benefits of the vaccines against Covid-19 continue to outweigh any risks and you should continue to get your vaccine when invited to do so," the regulator said, as quoted by IANS. Meanwhile, some media reports pointed out that this new figure is 25 more than what was reported last month.
A 44-year-old man was admitted to a Melbourne hospital on Friday with a blood clotting disorder days after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, according to Australian media. Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Michael Kidd in a televised briefing that investigation is on and so far, investigators have not confirmed any link between the blood clotting case and the AstraZeneca vaccine. Earlier, the country's the medicine and therapeutic regulatory agency, Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), had stated that AstraZeneca vaccine was not associated with an increase in the overall risk of blood clots.
However, Germany's vaccine commission, known as STIKO, has asked people under 60-years-old not to get the second AstraZeneca vaccine shot. In its website, STIKO recommends those under 60 years old who have had the first shot of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine to instead get a dose of an mRNA-vaccine after a 12-week gap since they received the first vaccine shot. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are mRNA vaccines.
With inputs from agencies
