France to continue AstraZeneca shots despite blood clots reports

French Health Minister Olivier Veran on Thursday said AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will not be suspended in France after some European countries decided to temporarily stop using the vaccine following reports of cases of blood clots, reported Xinhua.

"At this point, neither Europe, nor France, nor Germany consider that there is a proven excess risk," said Veran. He told reporters that French drug safety agency, in line with its European Union counterpart, did not notice any reason to halt injections with the vaccine.

"The benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine are higher than the risks," he said. "We are looking systematically at each declared case of undesired serious side-effects... Each case is analysed for a link of causality with the vaccination, which so far has not been formally identified."

Earlier in the day, health authorities in Denmark, Norway and Iceland suspended the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine following reports of the formation of blood clots in some recently vaccinated people.

In early March, France allowed people younger than 75 and with comorbidities to get the AstraZeneca shot, which initially targeted those under 65.

So far, 4.54 million French citizens have got a first vaccine jab and 1.26 million have received the two doses. Some 286,000 people were vaccinated on Thursday, marking "a record" since the country launched its vaccination campaign in late December 2020, according to the minister.

At a weekly briefing on the epidemic situation, Veran warned "the situation is tense and worrying" with an average of 20,000 cases per day and the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units (ICU) accounts for 80 percent of France's resuscitation beds.

In the greater Paris region, the coronavirus indicators were "particularly worrying" with an inhabitant admitted to ICU every 12 minutes. A total of 1,080 patients have been put on ventilator in Ile-de-France's hospitals, with the figure could rise to 1,500 by the end of March, he added.

Veran said that if COVID-19 continues to circulate at its current level, the government would take "the all necessary measures" to put the virus under control.

On Thursday, France confirmed 27,166 new coronavirus infections, pushing the total count to 3.99 million. The country's death toll rose by 265 in one day to 89,830.