Three Norwegian healthcare workers, who recently received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, have been hospitalized with bleeding, blood clots and low blood platelets, Norwegian health officials said on Saturday.
Norway on Thursday suspended use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, after a similar move by Denmark. Iceland has also done the same.
“We don’t know if the cases are related to the vaccine”Sigurd Hortemo, chief medical officer at the Norwegian Medicines Agency, said at a press conference jointly organized with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
The three people hospitalized are under 50 years old.
“They are very sick… We take this very seriously”
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) will investigate all three incidents, Sigurd Hortemo said.
“They have very unusual symptoms: bleeding, blood clots and low blood platelets”, said Steinar Madsen, medical director of the Norwegian Medicines Agency, on NRK television.
“They are very sick… We take this very seriously”, he said, adding that the authorities had been informed of these cases this Saturday.
AstraZeneca said an analysis of data covering cases reported for more than 17 million vaccine doses administered showed no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis or thrombocytopenia.
“In fact, the number of such events reported for AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine is no greater than what would have occurred naturally in the unvaccinated population.”, said a spokesperson for the company.
Such trends were also not seen in clinical trials of the vaccine, she added.
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