Portugal will to any extent further advocate the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine just for individuals aged over 60, the well being authority DGS stated on Thursday, amid considerations over attainable hyperlinks between the shot and really uncommon circumstances of blood clots.
The coordinator of the vaccination taskforce, Henrique Melo, stated the choice would solely have a “small” influence on the vaccination rollout.
“I want to highlight the goal of the vaccination campaign in Portugal is to save lives and prevent serious illness,” well being authority head Graca Freitas informed a information convention. “This may be achieved with any vaccine accepted in Portugal.
The transfer got here after the European Medicines Agency introduced on Wednesday it had reviews of 169 circumstances of a uncommon clotting dysfunction out of 34 million doses administered in Europe. Most occurred in ladies below 60 and inside two weeks of injection.
Melo stated Portugal had already administered 400,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Freitas urged those that had obtained a primary dose to remain calm because the unwanted side effects have been “extremely rare”.
The suspension for individuals below 60 is non permanent and might be evaluated when there’s extra knowledge accessible.
Portugal is anticipating to obtain one other 1.4 million AstraZeneca doses by June. It additionally makes use of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Portugal, which fought the worst of its outbreak in January earlier than circumstances slowed, has had 825,633 infections and 16,899 deaths.
European Union well being ministers did not agree widespread steering on using the AstraZeneca vaccine, regardless of requires coordination throughout member states to fight any public hesitancy over taking the shot.
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