COVID-19 Vaccine 79% Effective in US Trial With No Safety Concerns, Says AstraZeneca

COVID-19 Vaccine 79% Effective in US Trial With No Safety Concerns, Says AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca has said that its vaccine is 79 percent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in Phase III US testing with no safety concerns found.

This is coming two days after Denmark reported that two people experienced brain hemorrhages after receiving the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, of whom one of them died while the other is critically ill.

A report by New York Times had said Danish Medicines Agency was looking into whether the condition was a potential side effect.

Denmark, Norway, Iceland and several European countries had held off AstraZeneca COVID-19 jabs following reports of blood clots and and abnormal bleeding in recipients of the shots. France and Germany have however resumed using the shots.

The company on Monday said in a statement that the vaccine was found to be 100 percent effective in preventing serious cases of the disease and hospitalizations, according to The Hill.

AstraZeneca said it will submit the findings to the Food and Drug Administration in a bid for emergency use authorization in the U.S.

The European Union’s top drug regulator anniunces last week that AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine was safe and effective, after more than a dozen countries halted inoculations over concerns of blood clots.

However, the European Medicines Agency also said on Thursday that it could not rule out a link to the blood clots, and said it would add a warning to the product to draw attention to the possibility of such rare side effects.

The Biden administration last week also confirmed plans to send millions of doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico and Canada.

“Our first priority remains vaccinating the U.S. population, but the reality is the pandemic knows no borders,” Psaki told reporters on Thursday, saying plans were not finalized. “Ensuring our neighbors can contain the virus is mission critical to ending the pandemic.”

The agreement is not expected to impact President Biden’s plan to make the vaccine available to all U.S. adults by the end of May.

Mexico and Canada will reportedly be expected to pay back the U.S. with doses later this year.

In Nigeria, AstraZeneca Vaccines have been distributed to all the states and the FCT, except Kogi, which has yet to repair it cold-chain store. Many Nigerians have received jabs, and so far no adverse side effect has been reported.

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