No evidence of increased blood clot risk found: AstraZeneca

Municipal police patrol at the Piazza della Rotonda square in central Rome, on Monday. PIC/AFP

In the wake of several European countries suspending the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the company has said that there has been no evidence of increased blood clot risk from its jab. The suspensions have come amid several reports of blood clots following vaccinations with the COVID-19 jab developed by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant and the University of Oxford.

"Safety is of paramount importance and the company is continually monitoring the safety of its vaccine," the company said in a statement. "A careful review of all available safety data of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the EU and UK with COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country," it added.

So far across the EU and UK, there have been 15 events of DVT and 22 events of pulmonary embolism reported among those given the vaccine, based on the number of cases the company has received as of 8 March, AstraZeneca said. The company said that this is much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population of this size and is similar across other licensed COVID-19 vaccines.

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2,44,236
No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours

11,99,64,144
Total no. of cases worldwide

26,55,477
Total no. of deaths worldwide

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