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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Yohannes Lowe (now); Matthew Weaver, Mattha Busby and Helen Sullivan (earlier)

Spain joins France, Germany and Italy in pausing Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine – as it happened

Preparing a Covid-19 vaccination in Madrid, Spain.
Preparing a Covid-19 vaccination in Madrid, Spain. Photograph: Juan Carlos Lucas/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

We are closing this blog now, but you can stay up to date on all our coronavirus news on our new blog below:

A summary of today's developments

  • France, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Cyprus announced they will stop administering the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine pending an assessment by the EU’s medicine regulator. Spain said it will stop using the AZ vaccine for at least two weeks.
  • The benefits of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing Covid outweigh the risks of side effects, the European Medicines Agency said in a statement. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said there is no proven link to blood clots and that people should not panic.
  • Australia has no plans to halt the use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said.
  • Brazil registered 1,015 new coronavirus deaths, the health ministry said, bringing the total to 279,286 since the pandemic began. Confirmed cases rose by 36,239 to 11,519,609. Brazil has also signed a deal with Pfizer to purchase 100 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine, a source told Reuters.
  • Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas has tested positive for Covid-19 but is feeling well, the country’s government said.
  • Results of AstraZeneca’s US Covid-19 vaccine trial are being reviewed by independent monitors, and emergency authorization could come in about a month, a top US official told Reuters.
  • A World Health Organization expert on Monday said that the past week has seen an 11% increase in Covid cases worldwide.
  • Turkey recorded 15,503 new Covid-19 cases in the space of 24 hours, the highest daily rise this year, health ministry data indicated.
  • Firefighters in France’s southern Bouches-du-Rhone region have suspended the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine for their staff after signs of negative side-effects, it was reported.

Australia has no plans to halt the use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Tuesday, as several European countries paused administering the vaccine after reports of possible serious side-effects.

Frydenberg said the European medicines regulator and the World Health Organization (WHO) had confirmed that the AstraZeneca PLC vaccine was effective and safe to use.

“So we will continue to proceed with the vaccine rollout of AstraZeneca,” Frydenberg told Sky News.

Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus joined several other European nations in temporarily suspending vaccinations with AstraZeneca shots after isolated reports of bleeding, blood clots and low platelet count.

WHO said there have been no documented deaths linked to Covid-19 vaccines and that people should not panic.

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro has named a doctor as the country’s new health minister.

Marcelo Queiroga, a cardiologist, is set to replace General Eduardo Pazuello and become the fourth health minister in Brazil since the start of the pandemic.

Pazuello’s job was on the line after a week that saw record Covid-19 fatalities in Brazil.

More than 279,000 Brazilians have died in a worsening outbreak that killed more people in Brazil than any other nation last week.

Bolsonaro told reporters that Queiroga would follow Pazuello’s agenda at the health ministry and that the government would redouble efforts to implement mass vaccinations against the coronavirus. He added the transition would take one or two weeks to complete.

Pazuello, an active duty Army general without a medical degree, has been criticized for lacking public health expertise and supporting Bolsonaro’s push to use unproven drugs to fight Covid-19, while downplaying the need for social distancing.

Pazuello’s two predecessors resigned in roughly the span of a month last year, in part because as physicians they would not fully endorse treating Covid-19 patients with the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine.

Tomorrow’s Guardian front page in the UK.

A powerful late-winter snowstorm dumped over 3 feet of heavy, wet snow on parts of Colorado and Wyoming, shutting down roads, closing state legislatures in both states, and interfering with Covid-19 vaccinations.
A powerful late-winter snowstorm dumped over 3 feet of heavy, wet snow on parts of Colorado and Wyoming, shutting down roads, closing state legislatures in both states, and interfering with Covid-19 vaccinations. Photograph: Michael Cummo/AP

Brazilian doctor Marcelo Queiroga is set to become the country’s new health minister, CNN Brasil reported, replacing a general whose leadership has been widely criticised because of Brazil’s high death toll during the pandemic.

If confirmed, Queiroga would become Brazil’s fourth health minister since the pandemic began.

Ocugen is seeking to sell 100 million doses of India’s state-backed Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin in the United States this year, the American firm’s chief executive, Shankar Musunuri, told Reuters.

The Pennsylvania-based biopharmaceutical firm is partnering with India’s Bharat Biotech, a developer of the vaccine, to commercialise the shot in the United States. Covaxin was shown to be 81% effective in an interim analysis of late-stage trial data on some 26,000 people in India.

Musunuri said Ocugen aimed to launch the two-dose vaccine in the US from next month, initially with imported shots before beginning production there.
It is unclear whether the government is seeking additional vaccine suppliers.

He said Ocugen had held initial talks with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and planned to seek emergency use authorisation in April.

“They’re fine with the way the interim analysis is being done,” Musunuri said of the FDA, adding that Ocugen had “a regulatory path” to take the process forward.

Updated

Mexico has asked the US to share doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine it has in stock, a senior diplomat said, following up on a request made by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to his counterpart Joe Biden.

The deputy foreign minister for multilateral affairs, Martha Delgado, said that since the United States had not yet approved the AstraZeneca vaccine it would be a good candidate to offer to Mexico, which has started using it already.

“The possibility exists of being able to have access to some AstraZeneca batches they have,” Delgado said in an interview with Reuters last week, saying Mexico had made the request in diplomatic conversations since Lopez Obrador spoke to Biden on 1 March.

“That vaccine is already authorised in Mexico, but doesn’t have authorisation at the moment in the United States,” she said.

“They could release it.”

Lopez Obrador asked Biden for a vaccine “loan” during the virtual meeting, after Mexico’s vaccine strategy was knocked off course by a delay in deliveries of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

Updated

Jordanian security forces disperse a protest in Amman over measures imposed by authorities to curb the spread of coronavirus. Protesters clashed with police in Jordan’s capital amid a second night of demonstrations against health restrictions, even as the country posted a record high number of coronavirus cases.
Jordanian security forces disperse a protest in Amman over measures imposed by authorities to curb the spread of coronavirus. Protesters clashed with police in Jordan’s capital in a second night of demonstrations against health restrictions, even as the country posted a record high number of cases. Photograph: Khalil Mazraawi/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Slovenia has temporarily halted the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, joining a number of the European Union states in the move, the national news agency STA reported, citing health minister Janez Poklukar.

“An expert group suggested out of caution a temporary halt until the decision by the European Medicines Agency,” STA quoted Poklukar as saying.

Updated

Brazil's death toll surpasses 279,000

Brazil has registered 1,015 new coronavirus deaths, the health ministry said, bringing the total to 279,286 since the pandemic began.

Confirmed cases rose by 36,239 to 11,519,609.

Norway’s capital will close all middle and high schools and limit visitors in private homes to two people until early April to fight the spread of the coronavirus, the governing mayor of Oslo said.

In a separate press conference, Norwegian health minister Bent Hoeie announced that the government is introducing stricter measures for 52 municipalities surrounding the capital region, including the closure of non-essential shops and in-restaurant dining, although schools will remain open.

The government said last week that tougher national restrictions could be imposed unless local authorities managed to curb the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Nordic country has maintained one of Europe’s lowest rates of infection but now faces a third wave of the disease.

“There is no doubt now that we are in a third wave,” said Oslo governing mayor Raymond Johansen, adding the reproduction rate, which measures the number of people infected by each positive case, had risen to 1.5 in Oslo.

“These measures are on top of all the existing ones and, in summary, will be the most invasive measures introduced in Oslo since the start of the pandemic,” he told a news conference.

Updated

A summary of today's developments

Updated

Portugal temporarily suspends use of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine

Portugal temporarily suspended use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine on Monday, following on the heels of several other European countries.

Earlier, Spain, France, Germany and Italy had joined Denmark, Norway and several others in suspending use of the vaccine after reports of blood clots in some patients who had received the vaccine.

Graça Freitas, head of the health authority DGS, told a news conference that although the side effects were “extremely severe”, they were “extremely rare”, adding no such cases had been reported in Portugal so far.

The World Health Organisation said there was no evidence that the incidents are caused by the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca, an Anglo-Swedish company, with Oxford University.

The EU’s EMA medicines regulator said it would meet on Thursday to analyse the situation and reaffirmed its view that the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks.

Portugal, which has suffered 814,513 cases and 16,694 deaths, has so far administered around 1.1 million vaccine doses, with the vast majority of shots administered being those produced by Pfizer/BioNTech.

Henrique Gouveia e Melo, the head of Portugal’s vaccination taskforce, said the Oxford/AstraZeneca shots that have so far arrived in Portugal would be kept in storage until further notice.

Updated

Cyprus suspends use of AstraZeneca vaccine

Cyprus suspended AstraZeneca vaccines for Covid-19 on Monday pending a review by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), its health ministry said.

The suspension, which followed a similar move on Monday by Germany, France and Italy, will last until 18 March, when the EMA is due to issue a review of the vaccine following reports of thrombosis among some recipients in Europe, the ministry said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said there is no proven link and that people should not panic.

Cyprus’ inoculation programme with vaccines from Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna will continue, the health ministry said. There have been no publicly reported cases of any side effects from the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in Cyprus.

Norway and Denmark stopped giving Oxford/AstraZeneca shots last week after reporting isolated cases of bleeding, blood clots and a low platelet count. Iceland and Bulgaria followed suit and Ireland and the Netherlands announced suspensions on Sunday.

Spain will stop administering the vaccine for at least 15 days, Cadena Ser radio reported, citing unnamed sources.

Updated

Brazil has signed a deal with Pfizer Inc to purchase 100 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Brazilian officials have flagged their interest in a deal since President Jair Bolsonaro joined Pfizer executives on a video call last week, burying the hatchet after months of recriminations about stalled negotiations.

The British Medical Association has joined the calls from doctors’ groups for people in Britain to keep having the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

“Given the enormous lifesaving benefits of the vaccine we should be continuing to encourage people to get both first and second doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer jab. It is vital to retain perspective and acknowledge the dreadful death toll from this virus as well as the lives that have and will continue to be saved as a result of the vaccination programme,” said Dr Penelope Toff.

She is the co-chair of the public health medicine committee at the BMA, which represents most of the UK’s 240,000 doctors.

“The vaccination programme here in the UK has been incredibly successful – with over 11 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccinations given and almost 25m Covid vaccines in total – and is greatly contributing to protecting the health of the public and ensuring that life returns to normal as soon as possible.

“It’s important to note the views of our own regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, the World Health Organisation and the European Medicines Agency, who are still advocating that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is safe for use.

The Royal College of Physicians (hospital doctors) and Royal College of GPs (family doctors) earlier expressed similar views.

Updated

Results of AstraZeneca Plc’s US Covid-19 vaccine trial are being reviewed by independent monitors, and emergency authorization could come in about a month, a top US official told Reuters.

The independent monitors are analysing data from the 32,000-person U.S. study to determine whether the vaccine is safe and effective.

If the results are positive and all goes well, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would review the data and issue the authorization, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said in an interview.

Collins estimates that the FDA would need about three weeks to analyze the trial data, after which an expert advisory panel will meet and vote on whether to recommend authorization.

“We expect data from our US Phase III trial to be available soon, and we plan to file for emergency use authorization shortly thereafter,” AstraZeneca spokeswoman Michele Meixell said in a statement.

Independent monitoring boards periodically review data during clinical trials to make sure no safety problems crop up, and can halt studies early if it determines a drug or vaccine is likely to fail or is clearly going to be a success.

Several EU countries have halted administering the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports from Denmark and Norway of possible serious side effects, including bleeding and blood clots.

Asked about those issues, Collins said he has not personally seen the data but has been “pretty reassured” by statements from European regulators that the problems could be occurring by chance, and are not related to the vaccine.

With so many people being vaccinated, Collins said, some are bound to experience a blood clot around the same time they receive a vaccine.

It’s not clear at all” that people who receive the vaccine get blood clots at an increased rate, Collins said, adding “there may be a bit of an overreaction to something that is unrelated to the vaccine itself.”

US Vice President Kamala Harris watches as UNLV medical student Mailani Thompson gives a Covid-19 vaccine to a woman at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Harris is visiting Las Vegas Monday to promote the $1.9 trillion Covid relief package, known as the American Rescue Plan.
US Vice President Kamala Harris watches as UNLV medical student Mailani Thompson gives a Covid-19 vaccine to a woman at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Harris is visiting Las Vegas Monday to promote the $1.9 trillion Covid relief package, known as the American Rescue Plan. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

The accuracy of gold-standard PCR tests of nasopharyngeal swab samples may vary by time of day, new data has suggested.

Researchers analysed 31,094 tests performed on symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals at 127 testing sites, including 2,438 tests that showed Covid-19.

In a paper posted on medRxiv before peer review, they reported tests were most likely to be positive around 2pm.

And the proportion of positive tests in the early afternoon was twofold higher than the lowest proportion seen at other times of the day, Reuters reported.

The study “suggests people may be more contagious at certain times of the day and it raises questions about whether tests for SARS-CoV-2 may be less accurate when they are collected between late evening and early morning,” said co-author Dr Candace McNaughton of Vanderbilt University in the US.

“If our findings are confirmed, clinicians and public health teams could focus their efforts on lowering the risk of viral spread during times of peak viral shedding,” she said.

Updated

On Spain pausing its use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for at least two weeks, health minister Carolina Dias said “We take this decision today in the interest of caution.”

She referred to “infrequent cases which are very few but very significant and have prompted Spain to join the other countries that have opted for this precautionary suspension.”

Spain has administered some 6.7 million vaccine doses, around 930,000 made by AstraZeneca.

Summary

Here is a quick recap of the main Covid-related events from around the world today:

Updated

Mexico has registered 1,439 new confirmed cases of Covid infection and 234 additional fatalities, bringing the totals in the country to 2,167,729 cases and 194,944 deaths, health ministry data showed on Monday.

The government says the actual number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases due to a lack of widespread testing, Reuters reports.

Estonian PM tests positive for coronavirus

Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday but is feeling well, according to the country’s government.

Despite a slight fever, she will continue to perform her duties remotely, the government said.

In a statement, Kallas said:

I urge all people to take precautions, wear a mask indoors, reduce contact with other people, work remotely if possible and stay at home as much as possible, because the virus is widespread throughout Estonia.

Spain halts use of AstraZeneca vaccine for 2 weeks

Spain will stop using AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine for at least two weeks, health minister Carolina Darias said on Monday, joining a growing list of European countries hitting the brakes on the shot over concerns of severe side effects (see earlier post).

Updated

Global Covid infections rose 11% over last week- WHO expert

On Monday, a World Health Organization expert said that the past week has seen an 11% increase in Covid-19 cases worldwide, raising concerns that measures to halt the pandemic’s spread may be breaking down just as vaccine distribution picks up.

“In the past week we have seen an 11% increase in transmission across the world,” WHO epidemiologist Maria van Kerkhove, the technical lead on Covid-19, told a news conference, adding: “It is not the time to let up.”

Updated

Turkey records 15,503 new Covid cases - highest daily rise this year

Turkey has recorded 15,503 new Covid cases in the space of 24 hours, the highest daily rise this year, data from the health ministry showed on Monday.

A total of 2,894,893 coronavirus cases have been recorded since the beginning of the pandemic.

Monday’s data showed 63 people had died due to Covid-19 in the space of 24 hours, raising the cumulative death toll to 29,552, Reuters reports.

Updated

NHS leaders in England admitted to the Guardian that they fear that the row in Europe will lead to Britons shunning the AZ jab.

Ruth Rankine, primary care director at the NHS Confederation, which represents the 1,260 primary care networks of GP surgeries that have played a key role in the rollout, said:

Health leaders are concerned that the decisions from some European countries to temporarily suspend the roll out of the AstraZeneca vaccine will affect how confident people in England are about getting immunised, despite the EMA not having altered its license and the World Health Organisation explaining that there is no reason to stop administering it.

“This is particularly worrying as it is coming at a time when the national lockdown restrictions are beginning to be relaxed, when our vaccine stock has increased this week, and when we can see the benefits of the vaccinations coming through in reduced transmission.

“It is right that all concerns are investigated thoroughly and our members will continue to be guided by the advice of our independent regulator [the MHRA], which has maintained that both vaccines available in the UK are safe.”

Updated

Britons are continuing to have the AZ jab regardless of events in Europe, and should continue to do so, as there is no evidence that it causes blood clots, the head of the Royal College of GPs told the Guardian.

“Over 24 million people in the UK have now been vaccinated, many of whom have successfully received the AstraZeneca drug with no side-effects. Where patients have reported side-effects such as flu-like symptoms and muscle aches, these have been minor and transient.

“The public should be reassured that whilst these new vaccines were developed and approved at speed, no corners were cut and patient safety has been, and remains, paramount”, said Prof Martin Marshall, the chair of the RCGP.

“The MHRA [Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency] has been unable to confirm that the reports of blood clots were caused by the vaccine and is advising people to get their vaccine when asked to do so.

“The message we are hearing back from our GP members is that patients are following this advice, and GPs are continuing with the vaccination effort to ensure that as many people as possible are protected, as quickly as possible”, added Marshall, who is a family doctor in London.

This was tweeted by Public Health England:

Prof Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians London, told the Guardian:

The safety of patients is paramount and that’s why the MHRA, the European Medicines Agency and the World Health Organization all conducted rigorous safety testing before the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was approved for use. As far as we are aware, there has been no demonstrable evidence of an increase in thromboembolic events, such as blood clots, among those who have been vaccinated in the UK. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that those who are hospitalised with Covid-19 are at much higher risk of having a blood clot than the rest of the population, so we’d urge people to act responsibly and continue getting vaccinated when they’re invited to.

Spain will stop using AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine for at least 15 days, Cadena Ser radio reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources, according to Reuters.

The health minister was due to provide an update later on Monday, as a growing list of countries stopped administering the shot amid concerns of severe side-effects, Reuters reports. The health ministry declined to comment.

Updated

Benefits of AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh risks of side effects- EMA

In a statement, the European Medicines Agency said:

EMA currently remains of the view that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing Covid-19, with its associated risk of hospitalisation and death, outweigh the risks of side effects.

It said it was working closely with AstraZeneca and national health regulators, including the UK’s MHRA, to analyse all available data and establish whether the vaccine might have contributed to the incidences, the Guardian’s Jon Henley adds.

The EMA’s safety committee will meet on Tuesday and the regulator will announce a decision on any further action on Thursday, it said, adding that it “currently remains of the view that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing Covid-19, with its associated risk of hospitalisation and death, outweigh the risks of side effects.

Read the full statement here.

Updated

French health authorities reported on Monday that the number of people in intensive care units with Covid-19 had risen by 92 in the previous 24 hours to 4,219, the highest level since late November.

The health ministry’s Geodes website also reported a provisional 333 new Covid deaths in hospitals, compared to 140 on Sunday and a seven-day moving average of 261, according to Reuters.

Over the weekend, hospitals in the Paris area - which account for more than a quarter of all Covid-19 patients in intensive care units - started transferring patients to other parts of France to reduce pressure on the capital’s health system.

Updated

Italy reported 354 Covid-related deaths on Monday against 264 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections fell to 15,267 from 21,315 the previous day.

Some 179,015 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 273,966, the health ministry confirmed.

People walk past a closed store in Rome, Italy, on March 15, 2021.
People walk past a closed store in Rome, Italy, on March 15, 2021. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Updated

Medical leaders say it is a “mystery” why an online Covid vaccination booking system hasn’t been launched, as doctors are forced to reject older Australians trying to make appointments days before GPs are due to begin offering the jab, Elias Visontay reports:

Updated

Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health, University of Southampton, says the decisions by France, Germany and other countries to suspend the AstraZeneca jab looks “baffling”.

In a comment published by the UK’s Science Media Centre, he said:

The data we have suggests that numbers of adverse events related to blood clots are the same (and possibly, in fact lower) in vaccinated groups compared to unvaccinated populations. The UK MHRA, WHO and also the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis have recommended continuing the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine rollout.

Halting a vaccine rollout during a pandemic has consequences. This results in delays in protecting people, and the potential for increased vaccine hesitancy, as a result of people who have seen the headlines and understandably become concerned. There are no signs yet of any data that really justify these decisions.

Updated

A health worker in Norway has become the second person to die after receiving the AstraZeneca anti-Covid vaccine, though no direct link to the jab has been established, AFP reports citing the health authorities.

On Saturday, Norway’s health authorities said three health care employees had been hospitalised with blood clots, bleeding and abnormally low levels of platelets in the blood.

All of them were under 50, and all had received a first dose of the vaccine made by the Anglo-Swedish pharma group.

One of the three, described as a woman “in good health”, died on Sunday after a brain haemorrhage, health authorities said. She had been hospitalised on Thursday, about a week after getting the jab (see earlier).

“We can neither confirm nor exclude that it has something to do with the vaccine,” an official from the Norwegian Medicines Agency, Steinar Madsen, told reporters.

The condition of the two others was reported to be stable.

Another health worker in her 30s also died on Friday in Norway, 10 days after receiving the same vaccine. Other deaths have also been reported in Europe, notably in Austria and Denmark.

The European Medicines Agency is currently investigating these deaths to see if there is a link to the vaccine.

On Friday, the World Health Organization said there was “no indication to not use” the vaccine, while the manufacturer itself insisted it was safe.

According to Norwegian medical authorities, around 130,000 people had received the vaccine in Norway before it was suspended.

The medicines agency in Denmark - the first country to suspend the use of the vaccine last Thursday after reporting a post-jab death - on Monday revealed that the victim was a 60-year-old woman who had suffered blood clots, low platelet levels and haemorrhages after receiving the vaccine.

The agency said it had informed people who had received the AstraZeneca vaccine in the past two weeks to look out for symptoms such as unusual bruising, bleeding, and severe headaches or stomach aches.

About 150,000 people in Denmark have received one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 583 two doses.

Updated

Canada’s health experts are sure all vaccines being administered in the country are safe, including those made by AstraZeneca, prime minister Justin Trudeau told reporters.

Reuters quoted him saying:

Our health experts ... collect data continuously and they assure us that all the vaccines offered in Canada are safe and effective, including those from AstraZeneca.

We are obviously watching what is happening with a specific batch in Europe. We can reassure all Canadians that no AstraZeneca doses came from the same batch.

Canada approved the AstraZeneca vaccine last month and has ordered 20 million doses. Ottawa has also secured an additional 2 million doses through an agreement with the Serum Institute of India and expects to get them by mid-May.

Trudeau spoke at an event with Francois Legault, premier of the populous province of Quebec, who said the provincial health ministry felt the AstraZeneca vaccine posed no risks.

Updated

Germany, France and Italy have suspended the Oxford/AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine as the World Health Organization said it had seen no evidence the shot had caused incidents of blood clots and a low platelet count in some people who received it.

Read our full story here:

Updated

The decision to suspend the AstraZeneca vaccine in many EU countries has been condemned by Conservative MPs in the UK, including the trade minister Greg Hands.

And the former environment minister Owen Paterson:

AFP has a useful timeline on the run-up to the suspension of the AstraZeneca jab by the EU’s three biggest countries – France, Italy and Germany.

Nordic countries sound alarm

Denmark is the first country on 11 March to say it will suspend use of the AstraZeneca vaccine as a precautionary measure over fears of blood clots in vaccinated people.

Iceland and Norway follow the same day, temporarily suspending use of all their supply of the vaccine.

List grows

A day later Bulgaria suspends the use of the vaccine as it investigates the death of a woman with several underlying conditions who recently received the jab.

An initial probe had suggested the woman died from heart failure and an autopsy found no link with the vaccination.

Thailand abruptly delays the start of its rollout of the vaccine, stopping Premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha from getting the first jab.

And the Democratic Republic of Congo, also due to start administering the vaccine, postpones its campaign citing “precautionary measures”.

On Saturday, Norwegian health officials report three more cases of blood clots or brain haemorrhages in younger people who received the jab, but say they can not yet say they were vaccine-related.

Ireland and the Netherlands join the list on Sunday, followed by Indonesia and then Germany, Italy and France .

Announcing its decision, the German health ministry says a closer look is necessary after the reported blood clotting incidents in Europe.

Suspending batches

The first halt of a batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine is announced by Austria on 8 March, following the death of a 49-year-old nurse from “severe bleeding disorders” days after receiving it.

Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Luxembourg also suspend the use of doses from the same batch, which has been delivered to 17 countries and included one million vaccines.

Italy’s medicines regulator on 11 March also bans the use of a batch as a precaution, triggering a similar decision from Romania.

And on 14 March Italy’s northern Piedmont region suspends use of the vaccine after the death of a teacher who had received it the day before, with a national postponement coming a day later.

Updated

Italy’s medicines agency, AIFA, said in a statement that the decision to suspend the AstraZeneca jab, was made in line with other EU countries and while it awaited a ruling from the European Medicines Agency.

The move comes after the northern Piedmont region on Sunday banned the use of a batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine following the death of a teacher, who had received a dose from the batch the day before.

Prosecutors have opened an inquiry into the teacher’s death and seized batches of the AstraZeneca vaccine, according to Italian news reports.

The agency added

AIFA, in coordination with the EMA and other European countries, will jointly assess all the events that have been reported as a result of the vaccination. AIFA will promptly disclose any further information that becomes available, including ways of completing the vaccination course for those who have already received the first dose.

Updated

Macron said the EMA regulator was expected to give guidance on Tuesday afternoon after a number of countries suspended use of the AstraZeneca shot.

Announcing the move, he said:

The decision which has been taken out of precaution is to suspend vaccinating with the AstraZeneca vaccine in the hope that we can resume quickly if the EMA gives the green light.

We are therefore suspending its use until tomorrow afternoon.

Updated

Boris Johnson has said the UK’s medicines regulator sees “no reason to discontinue” using the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The prime minister said the Covid-19 jab was safe and stressed that the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) was one of the “toughest and most experienced” in the world.

Prof Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford University vaccine group, said while it was right that regulators investigated reports of such side effects, data from millions of people was “very reassuring” that there was no link.

Asked directly if he could tell the public that the AstraZeneca vaccine was safe, Johnson said:

Yes, I can. In the MHRA we have one of the toughest and most experienced regulators in the world.

They see no reason at all to discontinue the vaccination programme ... for either of the vaccines that we’re currently using.

They believe that they are highly effective in driving down not just hospitalisation but also serious disease and mortality.

We continue to be very confident about the programme and it’s great to see it being rolled out at such speed across the UK.


Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Bulgaria, Iceland and Thailand have all temporarily suspended their use of the jab.

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the MHRA said there was no evidence of a link between the jab and an increased risk of blood clots.

Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, a statistician from the University of Cambridge, said the decision to pause the AstraZeneca vaccine rollout in some countries, including Denmark, Norway and Ireland, could be doing “more harm than good”.

He told the BBC Radio 4’s World at One:

I’ve looked at the AstraZeneca reports and they’ve said that 17 million jabs across the EU and the UK (had been administered) and they’ve had about 15 cases of deep vein thrombosis and 22 cases of pulmonary embolism reported.

Doing some sums, deep vein thrombosis happens to one in 1,000 people per year of all ages.

So, out of those 17 million jabs, we would expect at least 17,000 of those people to get a deep vein thrombosis some time in the year.

So that means that there will have been - and you can pretty well guarantee it - 350 people who have had an AstraZeneca jab then had a deep vein thrombosis in the week following that.

There’s more from Spiegelhalter here:

Updated

The Italian regulator has confirmed it is suspending the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine across Italy while it awaits an announcement from the European regulator.

The move comes after a teacher died soon after having the jab.

Updated

Here’s video of French president Emmanuel Macron announcing the decision to pause the AstraZeneca vaccine.

France and Italy suspend AstraZeneca vaccine

France and Italy have also announced they will stop administering the AstraZeneca vaccine pending an assessment by the European Union’s medicine regulator.

News of German authorities’ decision to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine until further studies have been carried out, has spread like wildfire throughout Germany, with the leading tabloid Bild, referring to it as “shock news” that had “fallen like a hammer” on Germany and would have a massive impact on the already slow vaccine rollout in Germany.

In an emergency press conference, Jens Spahn, the health minister, called the decision a “precautionary suspension” which he said was part of the government’s “open and transparent” approach in communication about the virus.

He stressed that if the vaccine was given the all clear, the government would do all it could to encourage people to take the vaccine once again.

Journalists at the press conference pushed him on the topic, arguing that it would be difficult to persuade people to receive AstraZeneca after yet another warning about its safety.

The government has repeatedly said all Germans would receive the opportunity to get a vaccine by 21 September but that target is now in huge doubt.

The decision to suspend AstraZeneca has the potential to bring chaos to the plans to give a second dose of AstraZeneca to tens of thousands – including hospital staff, teachers and carers – who have already received their first dose.

Karl Lauterbach, the Social Democrats’ health specialist, said he thought it was a mistake to have suspended AstraZeneca, arguing the decision would cost more lives than it saved.

Updated

Here are some more details on Germany’s decision to suspend use of the AstraZeneca vaccine:

The German health ministry, referring to a recommendation by the country’s vaccine authority, the Paul Ehrlich Institute, said:

After new reports of thromboses of the cerebral veins in connection with the vaccination in Germany and Europe, the PEI considers further investigations to be necessary ... the European Medicines Agency EMA will decide whether and how the new findings will affect the approval of the vaccine.

Updated

These comments are from Dr Frank Atherton, the chief medical officer for Wales:

Updated

The World Health Organization has said a fund it launched a year ago to draw donations from regular people and companies towards battling the pandemic has raised nearly $250m (£180m), AFP reports.

Noting an eagerness among the general public to help, the UN health agency decided to create the Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund for individual donations, which it launched on 15 March 2020.

As of Monday, it said, more than 661,000 individuals, companies and other organisations had pitched in a total of $242m, in what WHO described as an “unprecedented show of support”.

The fund had helped provide millions of frontline workers with critical personal protective equipment, medical supplies and testing kits, and to battle misinformation about Covid-19, the WHO added.

Updated

Moderna Inc confirmed it has dosed the first patients in an early stage study of a new Covid vaccine candidate for evaluation as a next-generation shot.

The company said its new candidate, mRNA-1283, could potentially be stored in refrigerators instead of freezers, making it easier to distribute, especially in developing countries, Reuters reports.

The early stage study will assess the safety and immunogenicity of mRNA-1283 at three dose levels, and will be given to healthy adults either as a single dose or in two doses 28 days apart, the company added.

Updated

Germany suspends use of AstraZeneca vaccine

Germany has suspended use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine following advice from its national regulator to investigate reports of blood clots:

Updated

Italian prosecutors seize AstraZeneca batch after death of man

Prosecutors in the northern Italian region of Piedmont said on Monday they had seized a batch of 393,600 shots of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine following the death of a man hours after he had received a jab, Reuters reports.

On Sunday, Piedmont’s regional government suspended use of the batch after Sandro Tognatti, a 57-year-old music teacher, fell ill and died in circumstances that have not yet been clarified.

Magistrates in Sicily ordered the seizure of a separate batch of AstraZeneca vaccine last week following the sudden deaths of two men who had recently been inoculated.

The Italian government has said there was no evidence of a connection between the deaths and the jabs and has allowed the AstraZeneca vaccine to continue to be administered.

Updated

Norway has defended its decision to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after one patient died of a cerebral haemorrhage following the jab.

Sara Watle, a senior physician at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and one of those who made the decision, said the vaccine had been paused while more information is gathered.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme she said: “Because the situation was a bit unclear at the time we decided to put the AstraZeneca vaccine on pause, in order to get more of an overview of what was actually going on with these cases.”

She confirmed that several people in Norway had become very ill days after receiving AstraZeneca jabs, including one person who died of an intracerebral haemorrhage. But she added: “We have not concluded a causal relationship.”

She said: “The cases have been young individuals who approximately five to 10 days after vaccination with AstraZeneca vaccine have gotten the symptoms of thromboembolic events, bleedings, also low platelet counts, and they have been in a really bad condition. So, so we’re looking at very rare events that all came at the same time in our country.”

When it was pointed out that blood clotting does occur normally, Watle said: “Yes, they absolutely do and that’s why we need to look more into these events and also look at our background rates in our country in order to get an overview of what this actually is representing.”

She added: “It will slow down the vaccination programme temporarily, but we also didn’t receive all of the doses we were supposed to do from AstraZeneca so actually the tempo isn’t slowed down that much yet.”

Updated

The benefits of using AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine are bigger than the risks, Poland’s health minister has said, after a number of countries suspended use of the shot due to concerns about side effects.

Adam Niedzielski told a press conference:

At the moment we still believe that … the benefits from vaccination in terms of the increase in public safety are much bigger than possible risks from taking the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Updated

WHO examining AstraZeneca vaccine reports

The World Health Organization said on Monday that its advisory panel was reviewing reports related to AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine (see earlier post) but there was no evidence that any health incidents were caused by the shot.

In a reply to Reuters, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said:

As soon as WHO has gained a full understanding of these events, the findings and any unlikely changes to current recommendations will be immediately communicated to the public. As of today, there is no evidence that the incidents are caused by the vaccine and it is important that vaccination campaigns continue so that we can save lives and stem severe disease from the virus.

Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni has said he has not yet been vaccinated against Covid-19 because he is “careful” and is still weighing which jab to take, days after the east African country began its inoculation campaign, Reuters reports.

The apparent hesitation may fuel already significant vaccine scepticism in the country, which is in the earliest stages of its rollout of the jab.

Uganda began vaccinating health workers and elderly people last week after receiving 864,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from Covax, the World Health Organization-backed programme to provide vaccines to poor and developing countries.

At 76 years old, Museveni is eligible to be vaccinated. But in a televised address late on Sunday, the president demanded an apology from the country’s largest independent local paper, Daily Monitor, which reported last month that Museveni and some relatives have been vaccinated.

“The reason I have not been vaccinated is first of all I am quite careful,” Museveni said, adding the vaccine rollout was starting with highly vulnerable people like health workers. “I am also looking at which of the vaccines should I go for.”

Updated

In the UK, prime minister Boris Johnson has said AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine was safe and that the government was very confident about using it in its vaccination push.

Asked if he could reassure people that the shot was safe, Johnson said: “Yes I can.”

He said:

In the MHRA (Britain’s medicines regulator), we have one of the toughest and most experienced regulators in the world. They see no reason at all to discontinue the vaccination programme. So we continue to be very confident about the programme and it’s great to see it being rolled out at such speed across the across the UK.

Updated

This just in from the World Health Organization Thailand (see earlier post for details on plans for Thailand to start using the AstraZeneca vaccine on Tuesday after a delay over safety):

Families in Hong Kong are suffering isolation and trauma after strict Covid rules have led to babies being separated from parents and those with newborns herded into tiny quarantine quarters for up to 14 days, Reuters reports.

Hong Kong authorities have ordered that anyone testing positive for the virus must go to hospital, including babies, while all their close contacts, even those who test negative, are sent to makeshift quarantine camps.

A city-wide petition circulating online on Monday asked the government to allow young children the option of home quarantine. Around 4,700 of a targeted 5,000 residents signed up in a few hours according to the website.

German doctors call for immediate lockdown to avoid third wave

Intensive care doctors in Germany warned the country would need to make an “immediate return” to partial lockdown if it is to avoid stumbling into a dangerous third Covid wave, AFP reports.

Christian Karagiannidis, the director of Germany’s intensive care register, told broadcaster RBB:

From the data we currently have and with the spread of the British mutation, we would argue strongly to return immediately into a lockdown to avoid a strong third wave. We won’t gain much from staying open for the next one or two weeks, because that will quickly bring us to a high level and make it twice as hard to push the numbers down again.

In this file photo taken on November 10, 2020, nurses take care of a Covid-19 patient in the intensive care unit of the University hospital of Aachen, western Germany.
In this file photo taken on November 10, 2020, nurses take care of a Covid-19 patient in the intensive care unit of the University hospital of Aachen, western Germany. Photograph: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

PA Media reports:

Two doses of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine offer similar protection against coronavirus as natural immunity after infection, new research suggests.

None of the 1,456 healthcare workers at Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust who had received two vaccines had a symptomatic infection when followed up more than 14 days after their second vaccination.

The study saw the same high level of protection in unvaccinated healthcare workers who had contracted Covid-19 naturally.

They had 98% fewer symptomatic infections than unvaccinated individuals who had not been infected before, researchers say. Most of the healthcare workers in the study had only received one vaccine to date.

According to the research, protection against symptomatic infection was at 67% after a first dose of vaccine, which was received by 11,023 hospital staff.

In total, 13,109 OUH healthcare workers have participated in the study of symptomatic and asymptomatic staff.Of these, 8,285 have received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (1,407 of them two doses), and 2,738 the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab (49 of them receiving both doses).

Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd has said it has signed an agreement with contract manufacturer IDT Biologika GmbH to manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid vaccine, according to Reuters.

Updated

Firefighters in south of France suspend use of AstraZeneca shot – reports

Reuters reports:

Firemen in France’s southern Bouches-du-Rhone region have suspended the use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for their staff after signs of negative side-effects, reported BFM TV and AFP, fuelling concerns related to the product.

France and Germany have decided to continue administering the shot while other European countries, including Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands, have suspended its use on safety grounds.

Updated

Portugal has extended a ban on flights to and from Britain and Brazil by another two weeks to 31 March, with only humanitarian and repatriation flights allowed, the interior ministry said.

Direct commercial or private flights to and from the countries have been banned since January to limit the spread of Covid-19 variants.

As of 7 March, passengers flying indirectly to Portugal from Britain or Brazil have also had to present a negative Covid test taken 72 hours before departure and quarantine for two weeks upon arrival.

Portugal, which has so far reported 814,257 Covid cases and 16,684 deaths, began easing a two-month nationwide lockdown on Monday, Reuters reports.

Updated

Hi everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the blog until the evening (UK time). Please feel free to drop me a message on Twitter if you have any story tips.

The developers of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine have said production agreements have been reached in key European countries as the EU’s medical agency deliberates official approval for the Russian jab.

AFP reports:

The head of Russia’s direct investment fund, Kirill Dmitriev, said in a statement that his organisation had secured “agreements with companies from Italy, Spain, France and Germany to launch production of Sputnik V”.

Dmitriev said the deals would allow for the supply of Sputnik to the European market “once the approval is granted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA)”. If approved Sputnik would become the first non-western coronavirus jab to be certified for use across the 27-nation bloc.

The EMA launched a rolling review of Sputnik V earlier this month, but several EU countries have already begun distributing it. Hungary approved Sputnik V in February and began using it as part of its vaccine rollout, while the Czech Republic and Slovakia have also ordered doses and say they will not wait for EMA approval.

Updated

Prison officers in some US states are refusing to get vaccinated in what has been described as alarming rates.

AP reports:

In Massachusetts, more than half the people employed by the Department of Correction declined to be immunised. A statewide survey in California showed that half of all correction employees will wait to be vaccinated. In Rhode Island, prison staff have refused the vaccine at higher rates than the incarcerated, according to medical director Dr Justin Berk. And in Iowa, early polling among employees showed a little more than half the staff said they’d get vaccinated.

Infection rates in prisons are more than three times as high as in the general public. Prison staff helped accelerate outbreaks by refusing to wear masks, downplaying people’s symptoms, and haphazardly enforcing physical distancing and hygiene protocols in confined, poorly ventilated spaces ripe for viral spread.

More than 106,000 prison employees in 29 systems, including the Federal Bureau of Prisons, have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to data compiled by the Marshall Project and AP since December. And some states are not tracking employees who get vaccinated in a community setting such as a clinic or pharmacy.

Still, some correctional officers are refusing the vaccine because they fear both short- and long-term side effects of the immunisations. Others have embraced conspiracy theories about the vaccine. Distrust of the prison administration and its handling of the virus has also discouraged officers from being immunised. In some instances, correctional officers said they would rather be fired than be vaccinated.

More than 388,000 incarcerated people and 105,000 staff members have contracted the coronavirus over the last year in the US. Nationwide, those infections proved fatal for 2,474 prisoners and at least 193 staff members.

Updated

'No confirmed issues' with Oxford/AstraZeneca jab

The director of the Oxford vaccine group has said there was no link between the jab it developed with AstraZeneca and blood clotting, after several countries suspended its use.

AFP reports:

Andrew Pollard said there was “very reassuring evidence that there is no increase in a blood clot phenomenon here in the UK, where most of the doses in Europe been given so far”.

“It’s absolutely critical that we don’t have a problem of not vaccinating people and have the balance of a huge risk, a known risk of Covid, against what appears so far from the data that we’ve got from the regulators - no signal of a problem,” he told the BBC.

Ireland and the Netherlands on Sunday became the latest countries to suspend their use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine out of precaution. Denmark, Norway and Iceland have also paused their rollout of the jab.

AstraZeneca said on Sunday there was no evidence of increased blood clots from the jab after outcomes from 17 million doses were analysed.

The pharmaceutical company said the 15 incidences of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and 22 events of pulmonary embolism reported among those given the vaccine was “much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population”.

“The nature of the pandemic has led to increased attention in individual cases and we are going beyond the standard practices for safety monitoring of licensed medicines in reporting vaccine events, to ensure public safety,” chief medical officer Ann Taylor said. “In terms of quality, there are also no confirmed issues related to any batch of our vaccine used across Europe, or the rest of the world.”

Ten Dutch cases of vaccine side effects, including possible thrombosis

The Netherlands has seen 10 cases of noteworthy adverse side effects from AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine, a Dutch drug watchdog has said, hours after the government put its vaccination programme on hold following reports of possible unexpected side effects in other countries.

The decision meant 43,000 vaccination appointments would be cancelled at short notice, the country’s health authorities said.

Reuters has the story:

The Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb said in a statement that 10 cases of reported side effects seen with the vaccine in the Netherlands included cases of possible thrombosis or embolisms, but none of the cases also included a lowered number of platelets, as has been reported reported in Denmark and Norway.

The Dutch health ministry said it hoped to resume vaccinations with AstraZeneca within several weeks, describing the halt as a “pause” taken only as a precaution. “I hope [the halt will last] no longer than a couple of weeks, because we need vaccines to be able to put this nasty period behind us,” health minister Hugo de Jonge said.

Denmark, Norway, Ireland and Iceland have halted use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine over blood clotting concerns. Italy’s northern region of Piedmont said it would stop using a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines after a teacher died following his vaccination on Saturday, while Austria also stopped using a particular batch last week.

The European Medicines Agency has said there is no indication that the events were caused by the vaccination, a view that was echoed by the World Health Organization on Friday.

My colleagues Melissa Bailey and Shoshana Dubnow report that after the rollout of Covid vaccines in the US, the number of new Covid cases among nursing home staff fell 83% – from 28,802 for the week ending 20 December to 4,764 for the week ending 14 February, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

New Covid-19 infections among nursing home residents fell even more steeply, by 89%, in that period compared with 58% in the general public, CMS and Johns Hopkins University data shows.

Updated

Indonesia expects to receive 20 million doses of Covid vaccines developed by Moderna and Sinopharm from the second quarter to use in a private vaccination scheme, the head of a state pharmaceutical firm has said.

Reuters reports:

Indonesia authorised one of the world’s first private vaccination programmes last month to run alongside its national drive, enabling firms to buy state-procured vaccines for their staff in south-east Asia’s biggest country.

While the plan is expected to speed up the pace of inoculation in the world’s fourth most populous country, some health experts have warned it could worsen inequity.

The Indonesian chamber of commerce and industry had pushed the government to authorise the private inoculation drive. More than 11,500 companies have signed up for the plan, which would see some 7.4 million people vaccinated, Rosan P Roeslani, head of the business group, told the same hearing on Monday.

The programme would allow employees of participating companies, plus their family members, to receive free vaccinations at privately run health centres with shots distributed by Bio Farma.

The country has suffered one of Asia’s worst coronavirus epidemics, with more than 1.4 million cases and over 38,000 deaths so far.

Updated

Facebook has started adding labels to posts that discuss the safety of Covid vaccines and will soon label all posts about the jabs, though the company is anxious to differentiate between misinformation and mere doubt.

Reuters reports:

The social media company said in a blog post it is also launching a tool in the US to give people information about where to get Covid-19 vaccines and adding a Covid-19 information area to its photo-sharing site Instagram.

False claims and conspiracies about the coronavirus vaccines have proliferated on social media platforms during the pandemic. Facebook and Instagram, which recently tightened their policies after long taking a hands-off approach to vaccine misinformation, remain home to large accounts, pages and groups that promote false claims about the shots and can be easily found through keyword searches.

Facebook’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, said in an interview that the company had taken viral false claims “very seriously” but said there was “a huge grey area of people who have concerns ... Some of which some people would call misinformation and some of which other people would call doubt.

“The best thing to do in that huge grey area is just to show up with authoritative information in a helpful way, be a part of the conversation and do it with health experts.”

Updated

Can China vaccinate half a billion people in the country in four months?

Reuters’ calculations indicate China could ramp up capacity enough to vaccinate the world’s biggest population and hundreds of millions beyond, in dozens of countries from Africa to Latin America.

But little is known about how fully the three approved domestic manufacturers are using their capacity – a lack of information that leaves a huge question mark over global efforts to end the pandemic that began in central China.

China got an early start, invoking emergency-use authorisation for vaccines in July. But it has inoculated less than 4% of its population, far behind such countries as Israel, Britain and the US, as it largely focussed on preventing transmission.

Now Beijing is shifting gears, aiming to inoculate 40% of its 1.4 billion people by the end of June. With 65 million doses administered as of yesterday, China needs to average around 4 million shots a day to meet that target.

Updated

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, has confirmed he has tested positive for Covid, but said he had not been in contact with the country’s leader since receiving his test results.

Reuters reports:

Roque said he regularly got himself tested before meeting with Duterte so today’s result “came as a shock”. The last time he was with Duterte was on 11 March, he said, adding he had tested negative the day before the meeting and kept his distance from the president.

He was asymptomatic and would continue working remotely in an isolation facility, Roque said. News of his diagnosis comes as the Philippines has been seeing a surge in Covid cases, with close to 10,000 fresh infections added to the total tally over the weekend.

It was exactly a year ago when Duterte imposed one of the world’s longest and strictest lockdowns in the capital, Manila, and other provinces in an attempt to curb the coronavirus spread. He has gradually eased the restrictions to revive the economy, which suffered its worst contraction on record last year.

Cumulative confirmed cases in the Philippines, which include those caused by new variants, have increased to more than 621,000 while confirmed deaths have reached more than 12,800.

Updated

Hong Kong authorities have said that the city’s vaccine scheme is to be widened to include those aged between 30-60 years old and domestic workers, as they aim to increase take up amongst residents in the Asian financial hub.

Reuters reports:

People have been relatively slow to come forward for vaccination since Hong Kong began unrolling its programme in February, starting with a vaccine made by China’s Sinovac Biotech. The Pfizer/BioNTtech vaccine was added earlier this month.

Around 190,000 people have received their first vaccination dose, around 2.5% of the city’s population. At least six people have died and several fallen seriously ill after receiving a vaccination by China’s Sinovac. The government said no direct link was established between the vaccine and the first two deaths, while the other deaths were still being analysed.

Health secretary Sophia Chan told a news briefing that the city faced a critical moment in controlling Covid and that vaccinating Hong Kong’s 7.5 million residents would help resume normality and relax social distancing measures. The widening of the scheme will enable around 5 million residents to be vaccinated, she said.

The former British colony has recorded around 11,200 total coronavirus cases and 230 deaths, far lower than other developed cities.

Updated

A 60-year old Danish woman who died of a blood clot after receiving AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine had “highly unusual” symptoms, the Danish medicines agency has said.

AFP reports:

It said the woman had a low number of blood platelets and clots in small and large vessels, as well as bleeding. European vaccination programmes have been upset in the last two weeks by reports that recipients of the AstraZeneca inoculation have suffered blood clots.

The European Medicines Agency has said there is no indication that the events were caused by the vaccination, a view that was echoed by the World Health Organization on Friday.

AstraZeneca said a review of safety data of people vaccinated with its vaccine has shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.

South Korea has unveiled plans to expand its immunisation campaign to include more senior citizens, health workers and other frontline professionals, with an aim to inoculate nearly a quarter of its 52 million people by June.

Reuters reports:

Starting in April, more priority groups will receive a vaccine, including more people aged 65 or above, other healthcare workers, police, fire officials, soldiers and flight attendants, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

South Korea began inoculating high-risk medical workers and the critically ill at the end of February as it battles a third wave of Covid-19 and seeks to achieve herd immunity by November.

“Our primary goal is to vaccinate up to 12 million people within the first half of this year,” KDCA director Jeong Eun-kyeong told a briefing. “We’re seeking to focus on protecting high-risk groups, while preventing schools and care places from infection and inoculating more health and medical workers and those who play an essential role in society.”

The KDCA reported 382 new cases as of yesterday, raising the cumulative caseload to 96,017, with 1,675 deaths.

China’s economy has made a swift bounce back from the pandemic downturn, with consumer spending surging at the start of 2021 and industrial production spiking by 35.1% year-on-year in the January-February period – the biggest resurgence recorded in decades.

You can read more on the business live blog with my colleague Graeme Wearden.

Updated

Stories about people getting blood clots soon after taking the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine have become a source of anxiety among European leaders, writes David Spiegelhalter, chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at Cambridge.

After a report on a death and three hospitalisations in Norway, which found serious blood clotting in adults who had received the vaccine, Ireland has temporarily suspended the jab. Some anxiety about a new vaccine is understandable, and any suspected reactions should be investigated. But in the current circumstances we need to think slow as well as fast, and resist drawing causal links between events where none may exist.

Updated

China will “streamline” visa application processes for foreigners wanting to travel there from Japan, if they have been vaccinated against Covid-19 with the Chinese-made vaccines.

The announcement from the Chinese embassy in Japan on Monday, mirrors a similar assurance given to foreigners based in Hong Kong wanting to travel into China.

Prior to the change, China was operating a policy of no non-essential travel, but is now expanding the categories of foreigners it will allow into the country.

According to state media, people who want to visit Japan for business purposes and who have received a Chinese vaccine can apply for visas in the same way they used to in pre-pandemic times.

Foreign nationals with APEC business travel cards can also restart their visa applications if they have invitation letters.

According to the Global Times, the foreign family members of Chinese citizens or permanent residents (including spouses, parents, children and other close residents) can also apply for a visa once they’ve obtained vaccination certificates. It must be for emergency humanitarian needs, eg a family reunion, visiting relatives, funeral or caring for critically ill patients.

A proof of a negative Covid-19 nucleic acid test result and a health declaration form are no longer required.

Three days of voting begins today in the Netherlands in a parliamentary election seen as a referendum on the Dutch government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

With a ban on gatherings of more than two people, restaurants and bars shut and the first night-time curfew since World War Two, voting has been spread over three days to help ensure social distancing at polling stations. An exception on the 9pm curfew will be made for people out casting their ballots.

Reuters has the story:

Prime minister Mark Rutte, one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders, is widely expected to gain enough support to secure a fourth term. Four polls released this week showed Rutte’s conservative VVD taking 21-26% of the vote, compared with 11-16% for its closest rival, Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam Freedom Party, which leads the parliamentary opposition.

Major parties including Labour, the Green-Left and the pro-education Democrats-66 are vying with the centre-right Christian Democrats for third place. Two or three of these will likely join a new VVD-led coalition.

With a ban on public gatherings, the election campaign focused on a series of televised debates in which Rutte maintained his image as a steady hand during a time of crisis. But coronavirus infections in the Netherlands are rising at the fastest pace in months, and the National Institute for Health (RIVM) has advised against any swift easing out of lockdown, saying that hospitals could still be overwhelmed in a third wave of the pandemic driven by more contagious variants.

Yesterday, police broke up a demonstration by thousands of people in The Hague to protest against the lockdown and curfew, the imposition of which prompted several days of riots in January.

This is Mattha Busby here taking over from my colleague Helen Sullivan. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to everyone reading. Please get in touch via my Twitter or over email on mattha.busby.freelance@guardian.co.uk with any tips or thoughts.

Thailand to start using AstraZeneca vaccine Tuesday after delay over safety

Thailand will start using the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine on Tuesday after a brief delay due to concerns over its safety, officials said, with the prime minister and his cabinet due to be the first to receive it, Reuters reports.

Natreeya Thaweewong, director of the spokesperson’s office of government house, made the announcement about the inoculations, which were delayed from Friday, in a chat group with media on Monday.

Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul had earlier on Monday said the AstraZeneca vaccine, over which there have been reports in Europe of sporadic blood clots, would be given to the cabinet on Tuesday if cleared by local health experts.

That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today.

Thanks for following along. Here is a (non-Covid) story about a stoat in four parts:

Summary

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

  • AstraZeneca found ‘no evidence’ of blood clot risk. AstraZeneca Plc said on Sunday a review of safety data of people vaccinated with its Covid vaccine has shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.
  • Netherlands suspended use of AstraZeneca vaccine, forcing cancellation of 43,000 appointments. Dutch health authorities will be forced to cancel 43,000 vaccination appointments due to the government’s decision to halt use of the Astrazeneca coronavirus vaccine for at least two weeks, news agency ANP reported Sunday.
  • Major arms sales flat in 2016-20 for first time in more than a decade. International deliveries of arms were flat in the period 2016-2020, ending more than a decade of increases, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report on Monday. While the pandemic has shut down economies across the world and pushed many countries into deep recessions, Sipri said it was too early to tell whether the slowdown in arms deliveries was likely to continue.
  • Protests erupted across many of Jordan’s cities and provincial towns against the government’s coronavirus restrictions, a day after oxygen ran out at a state hospital leading to the deaths of at least six Covid patients, witnesses said on Sunday.
  • Italy’s northern region of Piedmont said on Sunday it would stop using a batch of AstraZeneca coronavirus shots after a teacher died following his vaccination on Saturday.
  • Australia’s Labor party says the government must provide PNG with Covid vaccines amid alarming outbreak. Labor has called on the Morrison government to provide emergency medical assistance to Papua New Guinea, including providing doses of the Covid vaccine for the country’s health workers, as concerns escalate about the growing number of cases in the Pacific nation.
  • Singapore, Australia discuss possible air travel bubble. Singapore and Australia are discussing an air travel bubble with each other to eliminate the need for quarantine as they look to reopen borders mostly shut for nearly a year because of the coronavirus crisis.
  • Japan weighs 50% cap on Olympics spectators – reports. Japan is considering limiting spectators at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics to half of venue capacity because of coronavirus risks, the Sankei newspaper said on Sunday. For large venues the limit could be 20,000, but more spectators may be allowed if the situation improved, it added.

Japan weighs 50% cap on Olympics spectators – reports

Japan is considering limiting spectators at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics to half of venue capacity because of coronavirus risks, the Sankei newspaper said on Sunday. For large venues the limit could be 20,000, but more spectators may be allowed if the situation improved, it added.

Japan’s Games organising committee will announce its decision next month and is expected to comply with domestic regulations, the paper said, citing unidentified government and committee sources.

Singapore, Australia discuss possible air travel bubble

Singapore and Australia are discussing an air travel bubble with each other to eliminate the need for quarantine as they look to reopen borders mostly shut for nearly a year because of the coronavirus crisis, Reuters reports.

Also figuring in the talks are mutual recognition of vaccination certificates and resumption of priority travel for students and those on business, Singapore’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

American singer Brandi Carlile paid tribute to John Prine, Bruno Mars celebrated Little Richard and Lionel Richie honoured Kenny Rogers during an in memoriam segment on Sunday night’s Grammy Awards that featured an especially long list of names after a year of the coronavirus pandemic, AP reports.

In one of four performances interspersed between the names and faces in the montage of the past year’s dead, Carlile sang “I Remember Everything” for Prine, one of the musical artists lost to the coronavirus, along with country singers Charley Pride and K.T. Oslin, musician and composer Adam Schlesinger, folk singer Trini Lopez and many others.

Earlier Sunday, Prine won two posthumous Grammys for best American roots song and best American roots performance, a year after receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Grammys.

Carlile told The Associated Press that it didn’t bother her to be performing without an audience at the pandemic-restricted Grammys because “this time I’m just performing for John Prine. It’s just for John, and I know he’s there.”

Mars, joined by Anderson .Paak blazed through Little Richard’s “Good Golly Miss Molly” and Richie sang “Lady,” the ballad he wrote and Rogers made a hit, adding, “I miss you Kenny” as he ended.

Former Alabama Shakes singer Brittany Howard, backed up by Coldplay’s Chris Martin on piano, ended the tribute with a stirring version of the Broadway standard “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

Among those named in the montage was jazz pianist Chick Corea, who won two Grammys on Sunday only about a month after his death.

Corea, who died of a rare form of cancer at age 79, won the trophy for best improvised jazz solo and best jazz instrumental album.

Host Trevor Noah introduced the segment by telling viewers that they can see the names of nearly 1,000 people in the music industry who died in the past year at Grammys.com.

US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses are opening an ambitious, cross-country tour this week to highlight the benefits of his $1.9 trillion plan to defeat the coronavirus and boost the economy, AP reports.

The road show — dubbed the “Help is Here” tour by the White House — begins Monday with Harris heading to a Covid vaccination site and a culinary academy in Las Vegas, and first lady Jill Biden touring a New Jersey elementary school.

The president will have more to say about the plan Monday at the White House, and he plans to visit a small business in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday. He and Harris are slated to appear together in Atlanta on Friday.

Harris will meet with small-business owners in Denver on Tuesday. Wednesday sees Jill Biden in Concord, New Hampshire, and Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The stops at vaccination sites, businesses, schools and more are meant to educate the public about different aspects of the giant American Rescue Plan and how it will help people get to the other side of the pandemic.

Biden has said President Barack Obama’s administration, in which Biden was vice president, failed to adequately educate the public about the benefits of its economic recovery plan. He said he wants to do a better sales job this time around on the details of his first big legislative victory.

One of the plan’s key features is direct payments of $1,400 for a single taxpayer, or $2,800 for a married couple filing their taxes jointly, plus $1,400 per dependent — for a total of $5,600 for a married couple with two children. The payments phase out for those with higher incomes.

Podcast: Scandal, riots and the Dutch election

The Dutch cabinet resigned in disgrace earlier this year after admitting it falsely accused thousands of citizens of cheating the benefits system. Then a strict second lockdown sparked riots. Now Dutch voters go to the polls, but are they in the mood for a change of government?

Why some countries have suspended the AstraZeneca vaccine

Several European countries, including Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands and Ireland, have temporarily suspended the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine following concerns about deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and blood clotting. Meanwhile, Italy, Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg and Lithuania have stopped inoculations from one particular batch of 1m doses that was sent to 17 countries.

Vaccination programs with the AstraZeneca vaccine are continuing in other countries, including the United Kingdom and France. The UK is encouraging people to continue to be vaccinated.

According to AstraZeneca, there have been 15 instances of deep vein thrombosis and 22 events of pulmonary embolism reported among more than 17m people vaccinated in the European Union and UK:

Labor says Australia must provide PNG with Covid vaccines amid alarming outbreak

Labor has called on the Morrison government to provide emergency medical assistance to Papua New Guinea, including providing doses of the Covid vaccine for the country’s health workers, as concerns escalate about the growing number of cases in the Pacific nation.

The calls come as Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced that Queensland facilities had been conducting Covid tests for PNG, with one recent batch of 500 samples returning a staggering 250 positive results.

“Some 500 tests, 250 positives. So one in two people. That’s quite extraordinary and quite concerning when it’s right on our doorstep,” Palaszczuk said.

Pat Conroy, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific, called the outbreak in Papua New Guinea, which has seen an alarming increase in cases in the last fortnight, “incredibly concerning”.

Tracey Ferrier and Kate Lyons report for the Guardian:

Italy's Piedmont region stops use of AstraZeneca vaccine batch

Italy’s northern region of Piedmont said on Sunday it would stop using a batch of AstraZeneca coronavirus shots after a teacher died following his vaccination on Saturday.

Reuters: The region, around the northern city of Turin, had initially suspended all AstraZeneca vaccines in order to identify and isolate the batch from which the jab administered to the teacher, from the town of Biella, came.

The decision, following similar moves elsewhere in Europe, was precautionary and the region is awaiting the results of checks which will verify whether there is a connection between the death and the vaccination, the regional government said in an online statement.

The statement did not specify what batch it had banned nor did it say how the teacher died. Italian newspapers reported it was batch ABV5811 and a source close to the regional government confirmed it.

“It is an act of extreme prudence, while we verify whether there is a connection. There have been no critical issues with the administration of vaccines to date,” Luigi Genesio Icardi, head of regional health services, said in the statement.

Italy’s medicines authority Aifa said later on Sunday that alarm over the safety of the AstraZeneca doses was not justified and that no link had been proved between the deaths and the administration of the jabs.

Protests erupt in Jordan after Covid hospital deaths scandal

Protests erupted across many of Jordan’s cities and provincial towns against the government’s coronavirus restrictions, a day after oxygen ran out at a state hospital leading to the deaths of at least six Covid patients, witnesses said on Sunday.

Reuters: Hundreds of people spilled into the streets in defiance of a night curfew in the northern city of Irbid and several other provincial cities including a neighbourhood in the capital and the city of Salt. Protesters also gathered further south in Karak city and the port city of Aqaba.

“Down with the government. We don’t fear coronavirus,” hundreds of youths chanted in Irbid where outrage at the hospital scandal combined with anger over tighter restrictions that include extending a night curfew to stem a major surge of infections driven by a more contagious variant of the virus.

Protests erupted across many of Jordan’s cities and provincial towns against the government’s coronavirus restrictions, a day after oxygen ran out at a state hospital leading to the deaths of at least six Covid patients, witnesses said on Sunday.
Protests erupted across many of Jordan’s cities and provincial towns against the government’s coronavirus restrictions, a day after oxygen ran out at a state hospital leading to the deaths of at least six Covid patients, witnesses said on Sunday. Photograph: Khalil Mazraawi/AFP/Getty Images

Jordan’s economy has been particularly hard hit by the shutdowns aimed at containing the virus with unemployment surging to a record 24 % and poverty deepening. It witnessed its worst contraction in decades last year.

Demonstrators who blamed the government for worsening economic conditions also called for an end to draconian emergency laws enacted at the start of the pandemic last year used to limit civil and political rights.

Prime Minister Bisher al Khasawneh fired the health minister and said he bore full responsibility for the initial deaths of six coronavirus patients that exposed gross negligence in the state health system when medical staff failed to act after oxygen ran out for two hours.

King Abdullah visited the hospital in Salt, a city west of the Jordanian capital of Amman, in a move officials said was intended to defuse tensions. Anger with the authorities over worsening living standards, corruption has in the past triggered civil unrest in Jordan.

The authorities detained the hospital head and their aides Saturday evening with officials saying another three deaths could be linked to the rupture in oxygen supplies.

In England, funds in excess of £16m are being made available for the return of grassroots football at the end of this month through a joint initiative set up by the Premier League, the Football Association and the government’s Football Foundation.

Slightly more than £2m of the cash is being targeted at supporting clubs in the highest areas of deprivation in England, at disability football and at underrepresented groups, including women and girls. On top of that, a £14m bursary will provide six-year tapered grants to improve the quality of grass pitches while small grants will be issued to help clubs pay for essential equipment and machinery they need to start playing again:

Major arms sales flat in 2016-20 for first time in more than a decade

International deliveries of arms were flat in the period 2016-2020, ending more than a decade of increases, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report on Monday, Reuters reports.

The United States, France and Germany - three of the world’s biggest exporters - increased deliveries, but falls in exports from Russian and China offset the rise, SIPRI said.|

It was the first time since 2001-2005 that the volume of deliveries of major arms between countries - an indicator of demand - did not increase from the previous five year period, Sipri said.

While the pandemic has shut down economies across the world and pushed many countries into deep recessions, Sipri said it was too early to tell whether the slowdown in arms deliveries was likely to continue.

“The economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic could see some countries reassessing their arms imports in the coming years,” Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme, said in a statement.

“However, at the same time, even at the height of the pandemic in 2020, several countries signed large contracts for major arms.”

US Senate Democrats will push to make permanent two provisions of President Joe Biden’s Covid relief bill that provide emergency enhanced benefits for the poor through food assistance and child tax credits, two leading lawmakers said on Sunday, Reuters reports.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that making enhanced child tax credits permanent is an important goal for Democrats, as they seek to move forward with bold new initiatives that also include legislation to upgrade US infrastructure.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Schumer’s fellow New York Democrat, called separately for enhancements for a nutrition program aimed at women, infants and children in the $1.9tn bill to be extended indefinitely.

Biden’s legislation temporarily increased the value of the program’s cash vouchers for fruits and vegetables from $9 per month for children and $11 for women to $35 per month for both.

The bill also expands the U.S. federal child tax credit for one year from a partially refundable $2,000 per child to a fully refundable $3,600 credit for children under 6 and $3,000 for children aged 6 to 17, a move that experts say will significantly decrease child poverty in the United States.

“That’s one of the most important things we can do. We can change America, if we make them permanent,” Schumer told MSNBC. “It will be so good for these kids, their families, but for all of America and our economy.”

Nearly 11 million, or one in seven, US children live in poverty, the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank, estimates.

UK ministers must learn from government failures in handling and sharing data if they are to build the necessary long-term public consent to bring the Covid pandemic to an end, according to a highly critical report from MPs.

The public administration and constitutional affairs committee examined the government’s levels of transparency and openness around the data underpinning key decisions, finding a lack of sufficient explanation that it says has placed needless strain on public confidence:

Internationally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma celebrated receiving his second shot of the Covid-19 vaccine by performing an impromptu concert at a vaccine site in Berkshire Community College, Massachusetts:

Netherlands suspends use of AstraZeneca vaccine, forcing cancellation of 43,000 appointments

Dutch health authorities will be forced to cancel 43,000 vaccination appointments due to the government’s decision to halt use of the Astrazeneca coronavirus vaccine for at least two weeks, news agency ANP reported Sunday.

The Netherlands has temporarily halted its AstraZeneca vaccine programme, the government has said. The suspension will be in place until at least 29 March, Reuters reports.

Several other European countries have temporarily suspended use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, including Norway, Denmark and Ireland.

However, the UK’s medicines regulator said available evidence does not suggest the vaccine is the cause of the blood clots, advising people to get the jab when asked to do so.AstraZeneca also said its review had found no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country.

AstraZeneca finds 'no evidence' of blood clot risk

AstraZeneca Plc said on Sunday a review of safety data of people vaccinated with its Covid vaccine has shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots, Reuters reports.

AstraZeneca’s review, which covered more than 17 million people vaccinated in the United Kingdom and European Union, comes after health authorities in some countries suspended the use of its vaccine over clotting issues.

“A careful review of all available safety data of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and UK with Covid Vaccine AstraZeneca has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country,” the company said.

Authorities in Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and the Netherlands have suspended the use of the vaccine over clotting issues, while Austria stopped using a batch of AstraZeneca shots last week while investigating a death from coagulation disorders.

“It is most regrettable that countries have stopped vaccination on such ‘precautionary’ grounds: it risks doing real harm to the goal of vaccinating enough people to slow the spread of the virus, and to end the pandemic,” Peter English, a retired British government consultant in communicable disease control, told Reuters.

European Medicines Agency has said there is no indication that the events were caused by the vaccination, a view that was echoed by the World Health Organisation on Friday.
The drugmaker said, 15 events of deep vein thrombosis and 22 events of pulmonary embolism have been reported so far, which is similar across other licensed Covid vaccines.

The company said additional testing has and is being conducted by the company and the European health authorities and none of the re-tests have shown cause for concern. The monthly safety report will be made public on the EMA website in the following week, AstraZeneca said.

The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in collaboration with Oxford University, has been authorised for use in the European Union and many countries but not yet by US regulators.

The company is preparing to file for US emergency use authorisation and is expecting data from its US Phase III trial to be available in the coming weeks.

Updated

Summary

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.

I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next few hours. As always, you can find me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

AstraZeneca Plc on Sunday said it had conducted a review of people vaccinated with its Covid vaccine which has shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.

The review covered more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and United Kingdom.

“A careful review of all available safety data of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and UK with Covid vaccine AstraZeneca has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country,” the statement said.

The statement came as the Netherlands became the latest country to suspend the use of vaccine. Norway, Denmark and Ireland are among other countries to temporarily suspend use of the jab.

  • The head of the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said he has “no doubt” that there will be a further wave of coronavirus infections in the autumn.
  • There have been a further 4,618 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, according to government data – compared with 5,177 cases last Sunday.
  • The Philippines is on track with its Covid-19 inoculation drive, the head of the government’s vaccine strategy said on Sunday, addressing criticisms the rollout has been slow as worries grow about a surge in new cases.
  • The European Union will be able to stick to its vaccination targets this quarter despite AstraZeneca delivery delays as Pfizer is producing faster than planned, according to the EU industry commissioner Thierry Breton.
  • Irish health authorities have recommended that the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine should be temporarily “deferred” in Ireland in the wake of a report by Norwegian regulators.
  • Northern Ireland’s department of health has asked the UK’s medicines regulator for an update on the AstraZeneca vaccine rollout in light of the Republic of Ireland’s suspension of the jab, the department has said in a statement, confirming that it will continue.
  • France’s government has said today it plans to evacuate around 100 Covid-19 patients from intensive care units in the Paris region this week as hospitals struggle to keep up with a surge in cases.
  • Bahrain eased some of its coronavirus restrictions on Sunday, including allowing eating inside restaurants and re-opening educational institutions to students, as case numbers fall.
  • Italy’s northern region of Piedmont has said it would temporarily suspend AstraZeneca coronavirus shots after a teacher from the town of Biella died following his vaccination on Saturday.
  • Dutch police have been using water cannon to disperse anti-lockdown protesters in The Hague.
  • Brazil’s health minister, Eduardo Pazuello, is set to be replaced by the Bolsonaro administration, according to Brazilian media reports.
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