Mexico, Brazil won’t limit AstraZeneca vaccine after UK warning

Mexico and Brazil do not plan on limiting access to AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine after the United Kingdom’s drug regulator recommended doing so amid a potential risk of blood clots.

The statements come after the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) recommended that the vaccine only be used in people over the age of 30 due to the potential link to rare blood clots.

The agency said it reviewed 79 reports of rare blood clots after the vaccine was administered, with 19 deaths. Eleven out of the 19 who died were under the age of 50, while three were under the age of 30.

Cofepris, Mexico’s drug regulator, said that it is still reviewing the recommendations. However, it does “not plan to limit the use of AstraZeneca vaccines to any age or group,” Reuters reported. Mexico has acquired 3.5 million doses of the vaccine so far.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa said the benefits of the vaccine outweighed its risk, and recommended its continued use. The news outlet noted that Brazil has administered more than 4 million shots of the vaccine, and has only registered 47 clotting events.

The U.K.’s recommendation came the same day that the European Medicines Agency’s safety panel concluded that a “possible link” between rare blood clots and the vaccine existed.

Concerns over blood clots in a small number of patients resulted in over a dozen countries suspending the use of the vaccine last month. Oxford University paused a clinical trial testing the vaccine in 300 children ages 6 to 17 while it awaited the MHRA’s opinion on the reports of blood clotting.

AstraZeneca has maintained that its evidence has not found a causal link between its vaccine and blood clotting.