Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and his cabinet officials cancelled plans to receive AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine set to start Friday after health authorities delayed its use following reports of blood clots in some European countries, CNA and Straits Times reported.
The Southeast Asian nation is the first outside of Europe that has halted the use of the AstraZeneca shot, while other nations including Australia, Canada, South Korea and the Philippines said their vaccination program would continue.
The suspension comes after a number of nations, including Norway and Denmark, cancelled the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Roughly 5 million Europeans have already been given the COVID-19 shot.
Denmark halted the vaccination for two weeks after a 60-year-old woman, who was administered with the AstraZeneca shot from the same batch distributed in Austria, died as a result of the blood clot, according to Danish health officials.
Iceland and Norway said the suspension of the vaccine was part of precautionary measures.
"Although the quality of the AstraZeneca vaccine is good, some countries have asked for a delay," CNA quoted Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn, a consultant for Thailand's COVID-19 vaccine panel, as saying in a media briefing.
AstraZeneca on Thursday said it had found no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis -- marked by the formation of blood clots - in safety data of more than 10 million clinical reports, the Times said.
The first batch of 117,300 shots of AstraZeneca vaccines arrived in Thailand on Feb. 24, together with 200,000 doses of China's Coronavac vaccine.
Thailand has so far recorded around 26,500 COVID-19 infections and 85 deaths in a population of 66.5 million. A second virus wave that started in December is now registering less than 100 new infections a day.
