S. Korea to monitor reported side effects from AstraZeneca vaccines

South Korean health authorities said Tuesday that they will keep a close eye on reported side effects of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines whose rollout has been suspended in major European countries over reported blood clots after vaccine injections.

A large number of European countries, such as Germany, Italy and France, halted the use of vaccines manufactured by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University over reports of blood clots in some recipients.

International regulators, however, have said there is no proven evidence that the shots are related to the blood clots. The European Medicines Agency (EMA), the European Union (EU)'s medicine regulator, is scheduled to hold a meeting Thursday (local time) to review the issue.

"We will keep a close eye on the result (of the meeting) and review the course of follow-up measures," Park Yeong-joon, an official of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), told a press conference.

Park further said the EMA meeting is a precaution, noting that more than 100 million people globally have been administered with AstraZeneca jabs with no reported serious side effects.

"But suspending AstraZeneca vaccines could be one of options to be under review depending on the EMA's meeting results," Park said.

Earlier, South Korea decided to expand the use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccines to people aged 65 and older to ramp up the nationwide vaccination campaign as new overseas studies showed its effectiveness.

On Tuesday, the country reported 363 more COVID-19 cases, remaining in the 300s for the second day, the KDCA said. The total caseload increased to 96,380. (Yonhap)