MADRID: Spanish health officials said Wednesday they were investigating three cases of people who suffered from thrombosis after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, one of whom died.
The announcement by the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices (AEMPS) came two days after the government suspended use of the vaccine for at least a fortnight as a precautionary measure.
The three cases occurred between late Monday and early Tuesday.
Local press reports said the deceased was a 43-year-old teacher with no pre-existing health conditions and died of a cerebral haemorrhage.
Neither health authorities nor the clinic where she was admitted would confirm details, citing data protection laws.
Monday's decision to suspend all AstraZeneca shots came just hours after Germany, France and Italy announced similar moves linked to fears the vaccine could generate serious side effects such as blood clots which can cause swellings, heart attacks and haemorrhages.
In a statement, AEMPS said the three cases might be linked to the "formation of blood clots in areas of the body where they are less common", without drawing firm conclusions.
Its investigators were "gathering more information and carrying out an exhaustive investigation to find out whether there was not only a causal link to the administration of the vaccine, but also a possible temporal link".
Until the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine was suspended, 975,661 people in Spain had received a shot, official figures show.
Spain, which is also administering the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, has so far recorded more than 72,500 coronavirus deaths from more than 3.2 million cases.
For now, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has said it is "firmly convinced" that benefits of AstraZeneca's vaccine outweigh potential risks, insisting there was no evidence linking it to blood clots.
Its experts are nonetheless looking into "adverse events" associated with all vaccines, and the regulator is due to publish its conclusions on Thursday. — AFP