More countries suspend use of AstraZeneca Vaccine for COVID-19

 

LAGOS, Nigeria – The list of countries suspending the use of AstraZeneca Vaccine as a form of inoculation to curtain the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic has continued to increase.

In the last count, there are now 18 countries that have suspended its use. According to Spectator Index the countries include Denmark,  Norway, Ireland, Estonia, The Netherlands,  Thailand, Bulgaria, Iceland, Lithuania,   Luxembourg, Latvia, Germany, France and Italy.

Others countries that have suspended the AstraZeneca vaccine are Spain, Cyprus, Portugal and Slovenia.

These countries suspended the vaccine as a precautionary measures following reports that some batch of the vaccine led to side effects in some who have received doses.

Germany’s Health Minister, Jens Spahn said his country suspended the  vaccine as a “precautionary measure” based on a recommendation from the Paul Ehrlich Institute, which advises the government on vaccines.

According to Spahn  Germany had recorded seven cases of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), a type of blood clot, among people who had received the AstraZeneca jab — which he added had so far been given to 1.6m people in the country.

However as at February, at least 7 different vaccines (3 platforms) have been rolled out, 60 others are at clinical development state, the World Health Organisation, WHO has said.  Those currently in use include the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, COVAX, Pfizer –BioNTech (BNT162b2), the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and SKBio, Moderna,  Johnson & Johnson/ Janssen and Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine(96 percent effective) approved for the UK.

Basically other countries like China, UAE  are independently developing variants of the vaccine for use.