MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th March, 2021) Sweden has become the latest country to halt the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine against the coronavirus following suspected adversary effects in vaccinated people.
"This decision is a precautionary measure," Anders Tegnell, the chief epidemiologist, was quoted as saying by Sweden's Public Health Agency on Tuesday.
The European Medicines Agency is looking into reports of recipients developing rare symptoms post-shot, including dangerous blood clots in vessels. It will unveil findings on Thursday.
"[It is] important that we pause the vaccination until the EMA finds whether these events may be related to vaccination," Tegnell said.
Austria was the first to suspend the use of the vaccine from a batch of 1 million doses, prompting several other EU countries that received those doses to pause the rollout last week. Germany, France, Italy and Spain followed suit on Monday after initially rejecting concerns as unfounded.
