MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine health authorities suspended on Thursday the use of Astrazeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for people below 60 years of age to investigate reports of blood clots coming from overseas.
The temporary suspension came after the European Medicines Agency recommended to include blood clots as a rare side effect of the vaccine, Food and Drug Administration chief Rolando Enrique Domingo said in a statement, adding that there were no reports of such adverse side effects in the country.
The Philippines has so far received 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccines, about a fifth of the country’s total inventory, through the COVAX facility.
(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Ed Davies)
