Italy becomes 8th European state to temporarily halt use of AstraZeneca vaccine after two deaths
Italy says it has temporarily halted the use of a batch of AstraZeneca/Oxford coronavirus vaccine as a precaution following the deaths of two men in Sicily who had recently been inoculated.
In a statement on Thursday, Italy’s medicines regulator, AIFA, announced that it had issued “a ban on the use of this batch throughout the national territory” as a “precautionary” measure, after fears of a link to blood clots triggered suspensions across Europe.
However, it stressed that no established link yet existed between the vaccine and the subsequent “serious adverse events,” a position reinforced by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi's office.
The regulator did not specify what incidents it was referring to.
AIFA also said that it “reserves the right to take further measures, if necessary,” in coordination with the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
In a report, Reuters cited an unnamed source close to the matter as saying that Italian health authorities made the decision following the deaths this month of a 43-year-old navy officer, and a 50-year-old policeman, who had both received shots from AstraZeneca’s ABV2856 batch.
Italy’s decision came just hours after Denmark, Norway, and Iceland announced they were temporarily suspending the use of AstraZeneca/Oxford coronavirus vaccine shots after reports of the formation of blood clots in some who had received the shots.
Four other European countries — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Luxemburg — have also suspended the use of vaccines from this batch, which was sent to 17 European countries and consisting of one million jabs.
Separately on Thursday, the EMA said there had been 30 cases of “thromboembolic events” among five million people who have so far received AstraZeneca/Oxford shots in Europe.
Earlier this week, the drugmaker said its shots were subject to strict and rigorous quality controls and that there had been “no confirmed serious adverse events associated with the vaccine.”
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