The Swedish Medical Products Agency said the benefits of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine outweighed the risks after the EU drug regulator said it had found a possible link between the shot and rare blood clots.
Sweden paused the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in March after reports of rare but serious blood clots among people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca shot. Sweden later resumed use for people over 65.
“We stand behind this conclusion, that the benefits outweigh the risks,” Ulla Wandel Liminga at the Medical Products Agency told a news conference.
The EU drug regulator said on Wednesday that the vaccine had possible links with very rare cases of unusual blood clots with low blood platelet counts, but it reiterated that its advantages outweighed its risks and recommended no age or gender limits for its use.
Sweden, which has shunned lockdowns throughout the pandemic, registered 6,814 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, health agency statistics showed.
The country of 10 million inhabitants registered 45 new deaths, taking the total to 13,578. The deaths registered have occurred over several days and sometimes weeks.
Sweden’s death rate per capita is many times higher than that of its Nordic neighbours’ but lower than in most European countries that opted for lockdowns.
Main Photo: Nursing staff prepare the desks for a day of mass vaccination against Covid-19 in the Blue Hall of the Stockholm City Hall, the venue for the Nobel Prize banquets, in Stockholm, Sweden. EPA-EFE/Jonas Ekströmer
