Health officials in South Korea say they will decide whether to resume administrating AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccines to people 60 and younger over the weekend.
The injections were paused while regulators in Europe reviewed a possible link between the shots and rare blood clots.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Thursday noted that the European Medicine Agency emphasized that the benefits of receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine continue to outweigh the risks for most people, even though it said it had found a “possible link” between the shot and the rare clots.
South Korea’s mass immunization campaign has mainly relied on AstraZeneca shots produced locally by BK Bioscience. The country has so far administered first doses to about 1 million people. In the age group of 60 or under, South Korea has only been vaccinating hospital and emergency workers and people in long-term care settings.
The KDCA said it will assess the vaccine’s potential risks and review reported cases of blood clotting with a panel of experts on Thursday.
