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“We are temporarily stopping vaccination with AstraZeneca for people under the age of 60,” said Dilek Kalayci, health minister in the German capital. He added that this was only a “temporary measure” while the city awaited official recommendations from federal health officials.
“We don’t have serious side effects in Berlin,” Kalayci explained, adding that “everyone who has already received the AstraZeneca vaccine has received very good protection.”
The Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), which oversees the German pharmaceutical industry, has so far reported 31 cases of blood clots in people who received AstraZeneca, the weekly Der Spiegel reported Tuesday.
Almost all of these people are reported to be younger and middle-aged women, which is why several German hospitals have stopped vaccinating women under 55 with this vaccine.
According to Kalayci, the German provincial health ministers will meet on Tuesday and the German vaccine commission should soon issue a new recommendation on AstraZeneca.
On Monday, Canada also recommended stopping vaccinating people under the age of 55 “until a more detailed analysis is done.
The success of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been mixed. The UK, where the drug was developed, is willing to support its use, but South Africa has completely phased out the drug, and by mid-March several European countries had discontinued its use. Most of them later allowed the vaccine to be used again, but imposed some age restrictions.
In France, the vaccine is only administered to people over 55 years old and in Spain to people over 65 years old.
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