30-thousand fewer people than planned will be inoculated against Covid-19 this week because of the pause on using the AstraZeneca vaccine. The doctors in charge of the vaccine drive here say they want to be sure a small cluster of serious blood clot events in Norway were completely random.
About one in five of the vaccine doses given in Ireland so far have been the Astrazeneca formula. But it was supposed to play a much bigger share this week as the vaccination of the medically vulnerable ramped up.
The HSE was planning to give 80-thousand doses - but now that's been cut back to 50-thousand. Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly says blood clots had been observed before - but nothing more than expected.
In a statement last night, AstraZeneca said there had only been a small number of blood clotting cases among the 17 million who've received the vaccine in the EU and UK. It says there have been 15 cases of deep vein thrombosis and 22 of pulmonary embolism in that group up to last week.
"This is much lower than would be expected to occur naturally," the firm says. The vaccination of elderly people with the Pfizer and Moderna jabs will go ahead as scheduled.
