 Denmark
to ditch AstraZeneca shot, delaying vaccine rollout -
media
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[April 14, 2021]
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Denmark on Wednesday
will become the first country to entirely cease administering
AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine following its possible link to very rare
cases of blood clots, several Danish media outlets reported on
Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.
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 The decision, which would remove the shot from Denmark's vaccination
scheme, could delay the country's vaccine rollout by up to four
weeks, based on previous statements by health bodies.
Danish health authorities will hold a media briefing at 1200 GMT
where they are expected to announce the decision to halt using the
vaccine and present a new timeline for the country's vaccination
programme.
The European Union's drug watchdog said last week it had found a
possible link between the vaccine and very rare blood clot cases,
but said the risk of dying from COVID-19 was "much greater" than the
risk of mortality from rare side effects.
The regulator, however, left it to individual states to make their
own risk assessments and decide how administer the vaccine based on
local conditions that vary widely across the bloc.
A spate of countries across the world, including France and Germany,
have resumed administering the shot to some age groups, mostly those
above 50 or 60.
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 Denmark, a country of 5.8
million people, is in the process of reopening
schools, restaurants, shopping malls and
cultural activities, after the daily infection
rate has slowed to 500-600 a day from several
thousand in December. Danish
Health Authority director Soren Brostrom said last month that
Denmark "follows a precautionary principle" with regards to the
AstraZeneca vaccine.
It was the first country to initially suspend all usage of the
vaccine in March over safety concerns and has also put Johnson &
Johnson's vaccine on pause pending further investigations into a
possible link to rare blood clot cases.
Almost one million Danes have received their first jabs, 77% with
Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine, 7.8% with Moderna's shot and 15.3% with
AstraZeneca's, before it was suspended.
(Reporting by Nikolaj Skydsgaard and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen;
Editing by Hugh Lawson and Toby Chopra)
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