A case was reported on Saturday, in the province of Alberta, in an unidentified man in his 60s. He had recently been vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccine, which is manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) under the brand name ‘Covishield‘.
Alberta’s chief medical officer, Deena Hinshaw, tweeted “The man was diagnosed, treated promptly, and is now recovering”.
Today, we announced a case of a rare blood clot disorder linked to the AZ vaccine. The patient was diagnosed, treated promptly and is recovering. Now that we know about this rare side effect we can watch for it and reduce the risk of serious harm or death even further. (1of5)
— Dr. Deena Hinshaw (@CMOH_Alberta) April 17, 2021
Meanwhile, Canadian health authorities continue to urge people to get vaccinated and have backed the use of the AstraZeneca Vaccine. “I continue to recommend AstraZeneca Vaccine for anyone who is 55 and older, and recommend that Albertans get vaccinated as soon as they are able to,” Hinshaw said during her interaction with the media.
Further, she specified that it was only the second case in a country where more than 700,000 doses of AstraZeneca Vaccine had been served.
“The global rates of such clots has been estimated at only one in 100,000-250,000 doses. In contrast, those aged 55 and older, who get covid-19, have one in 200 chances of dying, and are also 1500 times more likely to be hospitalized due to COVID-19 than experiencing this disorder from the vaccine,” the medical officer added.
The case was confirmed by Health Canada. In a Tweet, the agency said that– ‘based on all the evidence available internationally, the organisation continues to consider that the benefits of AstraZeneca vaccine and Covishield vaccine to protect against Covid-19, far outweigh the potential risks.
5/5 Based on all of the evidence available internationally to-date, Health Canada continues to consider that the benefits of the #AstraZeneca and COVISHIELD vaccines to protect against #COVID19 outweigh the potential risks.
— Health Canada and PHAC (@GovCanHealth) April 17, 2021
The agency further added that it is continuing to monitor the adverse effects of the vaccine. “The report of this case shows that Canada’s vaccine safety monitoring system works,” it added. Hinshaw further clarified that with health authorities aware of the vaccine’s response, they could “watch for it and reduce the risk of serious harm or death even further”.
Canada’s first case of this particular kind of reaction to the vaccine was reported on April 14 in a patient. She was a Quebec-based woman, who is also said to be recovering. The country received 500,000 doses of Covishield on March 3 and the entire batch of the vaccine has been distributed across Canada.
