A scientific committee in Canada is likely to recommend to halt the use of the AstraZeneca shot for people aged under 55.
The first to heed the new National Advisory Committee on Immunization and Health (NACI) guidelines were Manitoba and Quebec provinces, these guidelines were based on safety concerns, following reports of rare blood clots in some patients who got the vaccine overseas.
However, at an afternoon briefing, the Health Canada and NACI doctors were scheduled to provide further details.
“To date, no cases of (blot clots) have been reported in Canada,” Health Canada said in a statement. “However, through our ongoing international collaboration, Health Canada has become aware that additional cases of these events have been reported in Europe.”
Earlier this month the NACI urged giving AstraZeneca shots only to people aged between 18 to 64 and then planned to revised its recommendation to include people of 65 and over.
However, Canada planned to receive 1.5 million surpluses AstraZeneca doses from the United States, which has yet to approve its use domestically today.
Canada separately ordered 20 million AstraZeneca shots including two million doses of the same formula produced by the Serum Institute of India.
According to local reports, as of last week, it had published only about 500,000 doses manufactured by the Serum Institute and only a few went to younger people.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has had a rollercoaster ride, with Britain, which developed it, staunchly supporting its use, South Africa outright rejecting it, and more than a dozen EU nations suspending shots in mid-March before most restarted rollouts but with a patchwork of age limits.
France has limited its use to over 55s, and Spain to under 65s, for example.