17 Mar 2021

European countries not backing down on AstraZeneca bans

From Morning Report, 6:13 am on 17 March 2021

More than a dozen European Union countries aren't budging on their suspension of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, because of concerns the drug may cause blood clotting.

The World Health Organisation says there is no evidence of any such link while the European Medicines Agency overnight said it was still assessing the claims but said the benefits of taking the vaccine outweigh any risks.

Among the nations to announce a precautionary halt is Italy, which has gone into another lockdown amid concerns over a third wave of Covid-19.

Italy correspondent Seema Gupta spoke to Corin Dann.