Canada reports 1st blood clot in AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine recipient

Canada announced on Tuesday its first report of a rare blood clot in a person who had received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said in a statement the person is at home recovering.

“Reports of blood clots with low platelets in people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine are very rare and the report of this case shows that Canada’s vaccine safety monitoring system works,” PHAC said in a statement.

The vaccine was produced at the Serum Institute of India, known as Covishield.

In March, Canadian health regulators said AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine cannot be administered to people under the age of 55 due to concerns over reports of rare blood clots.

“Based on all of the evidence available internationally to-date, Health Canada continues to consider that the benefits of the AstraZeneca and COVISHIELD vaccines to protect against COVID-19 outweigh the potential risks,” the statement read.

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Canada advised to pause AstraZeneca COVID-19 shots for those under 55

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