More countries pause use of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine after blood clot concerns emerge

Bulgaria said it would temporarily suspend inoculations with the AstraZeneca vaccine after the death of a woman a day after she received a shot

Countries continued to shy away from using the AstraZeneca vaccine Friday, a day after Demark, Norway and Iceland said they would halt its use while European drug regulators examine the possibility of a link to blood-clotting issues. The moves come despite continued support for the vaccine from global health authorities.

Bulgaria joined those countries Friday, saying it would temporarily suspend inoculations with the AstraZeneca vaccine after the death of a woman a day after she received a shot. And Thailand delayed its rollout of the vaccine, which was to begin Friday.

Both countries said they were acting out of an abundance of caution, and Bulgaria said an autopsy of the woman did not find any traces of blood clots.

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A senior adviser to the World Health Organization, Bruce Aylward, stressed in a news briefing Friday that WHO had “great confidence” in AstraZeneca’s vaccine. “Of course,” he added, “when you hear anything about any product that you’re giving to healthy populations, you always want to make sure that that confidence is well-founded. And that’s what’s happening.”

In the same briefing, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, said, “It’s important to note that the European Medicines Agency has said there is no indication of a link between the vaccine and blood clots and that the vaccine can continue to be used while its investigation is ongoing.”

Italy and Romania also paused shots Thursday, but only from a single batch of the vaccine that Italy is investigating. That batch is different from the one that set off alarms in Denmark and several other countries starting last weekend.

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Bulgaria — which is experiencing a third wave of the virus — ordered the temporary suspension Friday after the death of the woman, who was 57, the country’s health minister, Kostadin Angelov, told reporters. There is no indication that the death is related to the vaccination, but health authorities are investigating.

Angelov said the woman had several preexisting conditions, including a history of heart disease.

“I do not expect to find any correlation even in this case” between the death and vaccine, Angelov said. “However, having the people’s health and well-being in mind, we decided to take action as a precaution.”

The move could further hinder Bulgaria’s efforts in a vaccination campaign that has been marred by a slow rollout and vaccine hesitancy. The country relies heavily on the AstraZeneca vaccine and has ordered 4.5 million doses.

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In an effort to speed up its inoculation campaign, Bulgaria introduced a walk-in vaccination program last month under which anyone wanting to be inoculated would receive an AstraZeneca shot. Since then, those “green corridors” have been switched on and off amid a shortage of doses.

Thailand’s announcement came hours before Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha was scheduled to be the first person in the country to be inoculated with a shot of AstraZeneca. The move does not affect Thailand’s rollout of the Sinovac vaccine.

Dr Yong Poovorawan, a virologist at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, told reporters that the country’s delay would probably last a week or two. “We’re not saying the vaccine is bad,” he said of the AstraZeneca vaccine. “We’re postponing it to see if the deaths are related to the vaccine or not.”