CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th March, 2021) Egyptian health authorities said they consider the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine safe, having recorded no serious side effects connected to the rollout, media reported citing a health ministry source.
In early February, Egypt received the first shipment of 50,000 doses after reaching an agreement with AstraZeneca for the supply of 20 million shots.
"The AstraZeneca vaccine is absolutely safe in Egypt. So far, no scientific entity in the world has proven a link between the AstraZeneca-shot vaccination and the death of several people, or an increase in the number of thrombosis-related cases," the source told Egypt's Akhbar el-Youm.
No side effects were registered after "hundreds" of Egyptians were inoculated with the vaccine, the source added.
On Sunday, health ministry adviser Noha Assem told the DMC tv channel that between 1,000 and 2,000 Egyptian citizens receive a vaccine shot per day, but she cannot provide any accurate statistics.
In recent days, many countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland and Norway have temporarily suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after citizens reported side effects, particularly blood clots, after getting the shots. AstraZeneca has said that it had found no evidence of increased risk of blood clots from its COVID-19 vaccine after conducting a review of safety data of over 17 million inoculated people across the European Union and the United Kingdom.
The European Medicines Agency is currently investigating the possible link between the AstraZeneca shots and the increased occurrence of blood clots.
