Spain will resume vaccination with AstraZeneca next week

MadridOnly three days after urgently agreeing the suspension of the vaccination with AstraZeneca, Spain has decided to resume the campaign from next week following the latest endorsement by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). This has been agreed by the Ministry of Health with the autonomous communities. Unlike countries like Italy, which will begin tomorrow Friday, the State will wait until next week: firstly because tomorrow is a holiday in many regions, and also because the system needs some time to reschedule all the patients.

The decision comes a day after the Ministry of Health reported an investigation into three cases of thrombosis caused by a decrease in blood platelets, the risk that had been associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. One of them, a 43-year-old teacher from Marbella with no previous pathologies, died of an ischemic stroke. Two other people also suffered abdominal venous thrombosis. Both had been vaccinated in the previous 16 days but so far nothing indicates that the pathologies are adverse effects caused by the vaccine.

The EMA has rejected that this vaccine against coronavirus causes an increased risk of thrombosis - it is "effective and safe", it has said - although it has admitted that it lacks data to rule out that it is behind the cases detected in recent days in different European countries. The European authorities conclude that the vaccine has more benefits than risks and that is why it must continue to be administered to prevent serious cases and new deaths.

Currently the AstraZeneca vaccine is administered in Spain to key workers under 55. Before the alert for cases of thrombosis, the Ministry of Health was considering administering it to the under-65s, but so far has decided to postpone it in view of concern about the vaccine.