No evidence of increased risk of blood clots from vaccine: AstraZeneca

The European Medicines Agency defended AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine, saying that the preliminary probe showed that the batch of AstraZeneca vaccines used in Austria was likely not to blame for the nurse's death.

AstraZeneca defended its COVID-19 vaccine on March 12, 2021 saying that there was "no evidence of an increased risk" of blood clots. 

The European and UK medicines regulators also defended AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine saying that the link between the vaccine and blood clots has not been confirmed and that rollouts should continue. 

This comes after a group of European countries- Denmark, Norway and Iceland temporarily suspended the use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine on March 11, 2021. Bulgaria became the latest to follow suit on March 12 with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov ordering a temporary halt to vaccination using AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine until the European Medicines Agency "rejects all doubts" about the vaccine's safety.

One Asian country-Thailand also suspended the use of the vaccine. Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha canceled plans to publicly get the AstraZeneca vaccine shot on March 12. 

Read more here:  Thailand becomes first Asian country to halt use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine

No evidence of increased risk of pulmonary embolism: AstraZeneca

The European nations had temporarily suspended the use of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine due to concerns about patients developing blood clots post-vaccination. The move came after a 49-year-old nurse died of "severe blood coagulation problems" days after receiving the vaccine in Austria, following which the nation suspended the use of a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines on March 8th.