OSLO: Norway on Friday extended a suspension of the use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine until April 15, with health officials saying they needed more time to investigate a potential link to severe blood clotting.
“It is a difficult but correct decision to extend the pause for the AstraZeneca vaccine. We believe it is necessary to carry out more investigations into these cases,” Geir Bukholm, Director of the Division of Infection Control at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI), said in a statement.
EU drugs regulator EMA last week said the vaccine was “safe and effective” and not linked to a higher risk of blood clots, but could not “rule out definitively” its role in the rare clotting disorder.