Coronavirus: Denmark reports one death, one case of serious illness after AstraZeneca jabs
- Both were health workers who received the AstraZeneca vaccine less than 14 days before getting ill
- The report comes as some European countries have resumed the use of the vaccine following advice from the EU’s drug watchdog
Denmark on Saturday said that one person had died and another fell seriously ill with blood clots and cerebral haemorrhage after receiving the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccination.
The two, both hospital staff members, had both received the AstraZeneca vaccine less than 14 days before getting ill, the authority that runs public hospitals in Copenhagen said.
The Danish Medicines Agency confirmed it had received two “serious reports”, without giving further details. There were no details of when the hospital staff got ill.
Denmark, which halted using the AstraZeneca vaccine on March 11, was among more than a dozen countries that temporarily paused use of the vaccine after a small number of reports of cases of rare brain blood clots sent scientists and governments scrambling to determine any link.
Some countries including Germany and France this week reversed their decision to suspend use of the vaccine following an investigation into the reports of blood clots by the European Union’s drug watchdog, which said on Thursday it is still convinced the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks.
Denmark – along with Sweden and Norway – said on Friday they needed more time to decide whether to use the vaccine.
“We prioritise reports of suspected serious side effects such as these and examine them thoroughly to assess whether there is a possible link to the vaccine,” Tanja Erichsen, acting director of Pharmacovigilance at the Danish Medicines Agency, said in a tweet on Saturday. “We are in the process of dealing with the two specific cases.”