UK RESTRICTS USE OF ASTRAZENECA VACCINE

British medical regulators restricted the roll-out of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine to people aged over 30 on Wednesday, after some rare cases of blood clots were reported.

The British Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) said people aged 18 to 29 who do not have an underlying health condition will now be recommended other vaccines instead, Isobe Frodsham, Ella Joyner, and Leonie Kijewski reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

MHRA investigated 79 cases of rare blood clots following vaccination with the drug in Britain. There were 19 deaths, with young people and women disproportionately affected.

Each person who died had either cerebral venous sinus thrombosis with thrombocytopenia - which stops blood draining from the brain properly - or thrombosis with thrombocytopenia, which occurs in major veins.

More than 18 million people have received a dose of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine in Britain so far. EU regulators also saw a link between unusual clotting and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant's coronavirus shot in "very rare" cases but upheld their endorsement of the drug's use for all adults in the EU.

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