Berlin: Germany will use AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for general use only for over-60-year-olds, according to the government on Tuesday. The authorities restricted the younger people from taking vaccine shots following several clotting cases.
Under-60s can still take the vaccine but only following “consultation with the doctor carrying out the vaccination … and with an individual risk analysis,” ministers of Germany’s 16 states and the federal health minister were quoted as saying in a policy statement by news agency AFP.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has been deemed safe by World Health Organization (WHO) and the EU’s health watchdog, but several countries have stopped taking the vaccine apprehending blood clotting.
Chancellor Angela Merkel noted that experts have recorded in recent weeks “very rare but very serious cases of thrombosis” in people vaccinated with AstraZeneca. “They are findings that (Germany’s vaccine commission) and finally us, cannot ignore,” Merkel was quoted as saying by the agency.
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