Brussels:
Johnson & Johnson’s single-jab vaccine against COVID-19 will be restricted in Belgium to men and women aged 41 and more than, authorities stated on Wednesday following the death of a lady who received the jab.
The country’s inter-ministerial overall health body focused on the pandemic stated that restriction will be “provisionally” applied pending additional guidance from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine.
The move underlined the level of caution EU nations are displaying to Covid vaccines, especially the two adenovirus ones made by Johnson & Johnson and by AstraZeneca.
Those two have suspected hyperlinks to extremely uncommon but extremely significant situations of blood clots coupled with low platelet levels which had been seen in quite a few deaths.
The EMA is continuing to evaluate the security of all 4 vaccines it has authorized for use in the EU, which also involves the ones from BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna.
Last month it drew a hyperlink among uncommon blood clots and AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson jabs but stressed that the positive aspects of the vaccines outweighed the threat.
It maintains a recommendation they be made use of for all adult ages.
Several EU nations have restricted the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine to older men and women, usually more than 55 or 60. Austria is phasing it out and plans to cease employing it in June.
Denmark has dropped the Johnson & Johnson vaccine from its national vaccination programme altogether.
Non-EU member Norway, which has dropped AstraZeneca, is providing Johnson & Johnson only to volunteers.
Johnson & Johnson only began delivering its vaccine to Europe in the second quarter, and it accounts for just more than 10 per cent of doses from all 4 vaccines in use, according to a European Commission graph presented to EU leaders at a summit this week.
In Belgium, the death of the lady — stated to be aged beneath 40 and vaccinated by means of her employer outdoors of the nation — was the “only case” identified, the inter-ministerial body stated in a statement.
The lady died on Friday soon after getting admitted to hospital with “severe thrombosis and a deficit of blood platelets”, it stated.
It added that Belgium would maintain employing the Johnson & Johnson jab to vaccinate elderly men and women at home and vulnerable groups such as the homeless.
But for the common population the restriction implies the jab now “will be provisionally used for the vaccination of people aged 41 and over”.
The body stated that, so far, Belgium had received about 40,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, of which 80 per cent had been administered to men and women aged 45 and more than.
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