- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Sattwik Biswal
BRITAIN has so far administered 18.1 million people with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, out of which 30 have developed blood clots, the regulator has said.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) confirmed that of those 30 people, seven had died as of March 24.
However, on Saturday (3) the UK regulator said there is no evidence of a causual lin between clots and the Oxford-AstraZeneca shots, and reiterated that the benefits continue to outweigh any risk.
The MHRA’s chief executive, Dr June Raine, said: “The benefits of Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca in preventing Covid-19 infection and its complications continue to outweigh any risks and the public should continue to get their vaccine when invited to do so.”
The MHRA said on Thursday (1) there had been “22 reports of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) and eight reports of other thrombosis events with low platelets”.
The figures cover 9 December 2020 to 21 March this year, when 15.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine had been administered, and around 2.2 million second doses.
Some countries including Germany have restricted its use to certain ages but the European medicines watchdog and the World Health Organisation both say it’s safe and effective.
In Britain’s aggressive vaccination drive, till now, 31,301,267 people have had a first dose and 4,948,635 have taken two doses.
