Astrazeneca Vaccine: India to review side effects

India will carry out a deeper review of post-vaccination side effects from the AstraZeneca shot next week although no cases of blood clots have been reported so far, an official told AFP yesterday. 

New Delhi decided to conduct the review after several countries suspended rollout over blood clot fears even as the World Health Organization said there was no reason to stop using AstraZeneca's Covid-19 jab.

Denmark, Norway and Iceland paused use of the drugmaker's shot as a precaution after isolated reports of recipients developing blood clots.

"We are looking at all the adverse events, particularly serious adverse events like deaths and hospitalisation. We will come back if we find anything of concern," NK Arora, a member of India's national task force on Covid-19, told AFP.

India has given at least 28 million shots in its vast vaccination programme, most of them AstraZeneca's which are produced at the Serum Institute of India.

New Delhi has also gifted and allowed exports of millions of these jabs to around 70 countries over the last few weeks as a part of its vaccine diplomacy.

Arora said there was "no immediate issue of concern as number of adverse events (in India) is very, very low. We are relooking at (adverse events that were reported) to see if there was any issue of blood clotting."

"As of yesterday there were 59 or 60 deaths, and they were all coincidental," the doctor said, adding hospitalisation cases were being re-examined.

The World Health Organization, which said its vaccines advisory committee was examining the safety data coming in, has stressed that no causal link has been established between the AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clotting.

"Yes, we should continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine," WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said Friday, stressing that any concerns over safety must be investigated.

AstraZeneca insisted its jab was safe, adding there is "no evidence" of higher blood clot risks.

Meanwhile, the European Union's coronavirus inoculation programme suffered fresh setbacks yesterday after Anglo/Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said production problems and export restrictions would reduce planned deliveries of its vaccine.

AstraZeneca blamed production problems and export restrictions for the latest shortfall, a major setback in efforts to fight a pandemic that has claimed 2.6 million lives worldwide.

In contrast, the United States has ramped up its vaccination programme after a shaky start.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 100 million vaccine doses have been administered in the US, around 30 percent of the world's total of shots given so far.

Ethiopia also gave out its first doses of vaccine yesterday, as the health ministry warned of an "alarming" increase in Covid-19 cases there.

Africa's second most populous country last week received 2.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca jab, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, and will give jabs to health workers in the first phase.

While the pandemic is slowing for some time now, a surge of cases in Italy, France, Germany and Brazil have caused an alarm bell that the pandemic is still potent.

Italy on Friday announced tough new restrictions in much of the country, with Prime Minister Mario Draghi warning it faced "a new wave" of infections. Schools, restaurants, shops and museums were ordered to close across most regions of Italy, including Rome and Milan from next week.

France on Friday said daily numbers of admissions into intensive care in the Paris region were now so high that hospital capacity risks being overrun.

Meanwhile, Brazil reported 2,216 Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, the third day in a row that fatalities exceeded 2,000 in the worst run of deaths since the pandemic began a year ago.

The health ministry also reported 85,663 new coronavirus infections, its second highest number for one day, as the pandemic surges in South American country driven by a highly contagious new local variant.

The World Health Organization said the state of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil is very concerning and serious action needs to be taken.

Brazil has now registered 11,363,380 cases in all, passing India as the country with the second worst outbreak.