Thailand Suspends AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine Use

The use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine scheduled to start on Friday was suspended in Thailand with its prime minister and cabinet members taking the first shots.

This came after safety concerns has been cited following reports of blood clots in some vaccinated people across Europe.

Prasit Watanapa, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Siriraj Hospital, confirmed that the rollout would be delayed after a suspensio of inoculations using the vaccine in Denmark, Norway and Iceland.

“AstraZeneca is still a good vaccine but with what has happened … the health ministry based on this advice would like to postpone the usage of the AstraZeneca vaccine momentarily,” Kiattiphum Wong it, permanent secretary for the Public Health Ministry.

AstraZeneca said on Thursday it had found no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis – marked by the formation of blood clots – in safety data of more than 10 million records, even when considering subgroups based on age, gender, production batch or country of use.

Thailand last week received 117,300 doses of imported AstraZeneca vaccine, which the prime minister and his cabinet had been scheduled to receive on Friday.

Last week, Nigeria president Mohammadu Buhari and his vice-president Osibanjo were vaccinated on Live TV, at the state house in Abuja.

Distribution of the vaccine is ongoing across the 36 states and some government officials have also been vaccinated.