As European countries suspend use of COVID vaccine, AstraZeneca; the company denied claims

While several European countries suspending the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the company has said that there has been no evidence of increased blood clot risk from its jab.

The suspensions have come amid several reports of blood clots following vaccinations with the Covid jab developed by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant and the University of Oxford.

On Sunday the company issued a statement and said

  "Safety is of paramount importance and the Company is continually monitoring the safety of its vaccine. A careful review of all available safety data of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union (EU) and UK with COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca has shown 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.

So far across the European Union and UK, there have been 15 events of DVT and 22 events of a pulmonary embolism reported among those given the vaccine.

For the uninitiated DVT is a condition arising out of blood clot forming in a vein and pulmonary embolism means blockage in one of the pulmonary arteries in the lungs due to blood clots.

The company has said that this is much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population of this size and is similar across other licensed Covid-19 vaccines.

A Chief Medical Officer at AstraZeneca said in a statement

"Around 17 million people in the EU and UK have now received our vaccine, and the number of cases of blood clots reported in this group is lower than the hundreds of cases that would be expected among the general population."

According to the company, there are also no confirmed issues related to any batch of the vaccine used across Europe, or the rest of the world.

The company stated Additional testing has, and is, being conducted by them and independently by European health authorities and none of these re-tests have shown cause for concern.