German state halts use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for people under 60
BERLIN —
The German state of Berlin has again suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, this time for those under 60, because of new reports of unusual blood clots in mostly younger people who have received the shots, officials said Tuesday.
The decision was taken as a precaution ahead of a meeting later Tuesday of representatives from all of Germany’s 16 states and further recommendations expected from national medical regulators, said Berlin state’s top health official, Dilek Kalayci.
The meeting was called after Germany’s medical regulator announced that it had received 31 reports of rare blood clots in people who recently received the AstraZeneca vaccine. Nine of the people died, and all but two of the cases involved women aged 20 to 63, the Paul Ehrlich Institute said.
Berlin state’s decision to suspend use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine came a day after a similar move by Canada, which began limiting injections to residents 55 and older.
Reports of an unusual form of blood clot in the head, known as sinus vein thrombosis, prompted several European countries to temporarily halt the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine earlier this month.
After a review by medical experts, the European Union’s drugs regulator, European Medicines Agency, concluded that the benefits of the vaccine far outweighed the risks but recommended that warnings about possible rare side effects should be given to patients and doctors.
Most of the EU’s 27 countries have since resumed use of the vaccine.
Earlier Tuesday, two state-owned hospitals in Berlin announced that they had stopped giving the AstraZeneca vaccine to female staff members under 55. The heads of five university hospitals in western Germany called for a temporary halt to the vaccine for all younger women, citing the blood-clot risk.
Kalayci, the Berlin state health minister, said the suspension of AstraZeneca vaccines for younger people was a precautionary measure.
“We have not had a case of serious side effects in Berlin yet,” she said, adding that all of those who had received the shot already could rest assured that it provides good protection against COVID-19.
“Still, we need to treat it carefully and wait for the talks taking place at the federal level,” said Kalayci.
About 2.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered in Germany so far.
https://www.latimes.com/world-natio...tate-halts-astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-under-60