Latvia is the first of the Baltic states to suspend vaccination with AstraZeneca shots pending investigation. Meanwhile Lithuania has no plans to follow suit.
UPDATE: Lithuania temporarily halts AstraZeneca vaccines
France, Germany, the Netherlands and some other European countries have temporarily stopped using AstraZeneca shots following reports about a small number of people suffering from blood clots after vaccination.
Read more: People in Lithuanian town shun AstraZeneca vaccine claiming safety fears
Latvia's Disease Prevention and Control Centre (SPKC), the State Council of Immunisation (IVP), the State Agency of Medicines (ZVA) and the Health Inspectorate (VI) issued recommendations on Monday night to suspend vaccination with AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 in Latvia for two weeks as a precautionary measure, the country's public broadcaster LSM reports.
According to the ZVA, the decision was based on reports from other EU countries about thromboembolism and similar issues observed following the vaccination. Latvia's Health Ministry, meanwhile, stressed that there was so far no evidence of a causal link between vaccination and serious health problems.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has yet to assess the information received on any potential causal link between the AstraZeneca vaccine with thromboembolism cases, and considers that “benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing Covid-19, with its associated risk of hospitalization and death, outweigh the risks of side effects”.
Meanwhile Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė told LRT RADIO on Tueday morning that her government was not considering to stop using AstraZeneca vaccines.
According to Šimonytė, the European Medicines Agency has not confirmed any link between blood clots and the vaccine, while some other EU countries suspend vaccinations as a precaution.
“There are no conclusions that this vaccine doesn’t suit in any way or causes adverse reactions that are directly linked to vaccination. We lose several or several dozen people who die of Covid every day, so I would say suspending vaccination right now would cause more damage than do good,” she said.
Lithuania could decide to suspend vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine only in response to a recommendation from the State Medicines Control Agency. “But there's no such recommendation right now,” Šimonytė said.
An adviser to President Gitanas Nausėda also said that there was no reason to stop using the vaccine.
According to Asta Skaisgirytė, around 17 million people have been vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine worldwide and “there have been 37 reports of fatal outcomes when blood clots developed”.
“If we look at it proportionally, those numbers are not very high,” she told the radio Žinių Radijas.
She added that the president himself would be more than willing to get an AstraZeneca jab when his turn came.
The European Medicines Agency is holding a special meeting on the vaccine on Thursday. Meanwhile, the WHO has called on countries to continue using the vaccine, saying that its experts will look into its safety on Tuesday.
Read more: Lithuania will not follow Nordics in suspending AstraZeneca vaccines
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