Canada Won't Limit AstraZeneca Vaccine Rollout

Canada's Health Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that it would not restrict the use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine since the latest review by Canadian specialists highlighted that there are more benefits than risks. This after using the vaccine has been limited in some countries over fatal cases of blood clots.

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"Health Canada is not restricting the use of the vaccine in any specific populations at this time ... The potential risk of these events is very rare, and the benefits of the vaccine in protecting against COVID-19 outweigh its potential risks," the Ministry said.

Moreover, the chief medical adviser at Health Canada, Dr. Supriya Sharma, said that the authorities "are not limiting the use of the vaccine to any specific age group or sex." This after Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization advised that AstraZeneca not be used on patients under 55.

A woman over 55 years old is the only blood clot case reported in Canada thus far, while the country has rollout more than 400,000 AstraZeneca vaccines. Nonetheless, the authorities said they were updating the vaccine labels to include blood clots among the effects.