Concerns over rare blood clots reported in recipients of the AstraZeneca-OxfordUniversity vaccine got closer home for the British-Swedish company, with the United Kingdom’s regulator confirming seven deaths.
“Out of the 30 reports up to and including 24 March, sadly seven have died,” the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said in a statement on Saturday. The development comes even as several European countries and Canada recently restricted the use of the vaccine to older people.
Dr June Raine, MHRA Chief Executive, however, said, “The benefits of Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca in preventing Covid-19 infection and its complications continue to outweigh any risks, and the public should continue to get their vaccine when invited to do so.”
Giving more details, the MHRA said, “As published in our most recent weekly summary of Yellow Card reporting for Covid-19 vaccines, up to and including 24 March we had received 22 reports of CVST and eight reports of other thrombosis events with low platelets, out of a total of 18.1 million doses of Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca given by that date. There were no reports for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Our thorough review into these reports is ongoing,”
India’s Serum Institute makes the vaccine for domestic use and other low and middle-income countries. However, to date, no concerns have been flagged by the regulator or the company locally.