Luxembourg temporarily halts AstraZeneca vaccine
After France and Germany also announced suspended use of the vaccine
Vials of the AstraZeneca vaccine © Photo credit: AFP
Luxembourg has followed its neighbours France and Germany in temporarily suspending the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the country, the health ministry said on Monday evening.
Several other European countries banned the vaccine after reports of people who received an injection developed life-threatening blood clots, although the link between the two has never been proven.
The news come after Luxembourg last week suspended the use of a big batch of the AstraZeneca jabs over the same blood-clot concerns.
Luxembourg had already administered 4,141 doses out of the 4,800-dose batch delivered by AstraZeneca before concerns that originated in Austria suspended their use, the health ministry said on Friday. No cases of blood clots have been reported in Luxembourg, the ministry said.
The health ministry highlighted that the decision to suspend the vaccine – and not just one batch – was a “precautionary measure”, pending the results of tests by the European Medicines Agency.
Despite countries across the bloc banning the AstraZeneca vaccine, the EMA still says that the “benefits of AstraZeneca's vaccine in preventing COVID-19 outweigh the risks of side effects”.
A decision by EMA is expected later this week.
