Slovakia suspends use of AstraZeneca vaccine as a recipient dies

Slovakia’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday it was suspending the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for people getting their first doses, after experts reviewed the death of a recipient.

The state drug regulator, SUKL, said last week that the death of a 47-year-old woman was likely to be connected to the vaccine because of a predisposition that she had.

“The Health Ministry is considering various options at the moment, how to proceed with this issue,” spokeswoman Zuzana Eliasova said. “At the moment, people waiting for their second dose are being inoculated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.”

She said further steps would be announced later in the week.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some European countries briefly halted inoculations using the vaccine made by AstraZeneca in March when concerns surfaced over very rare blood clots.