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| Test tubes are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo in this illustration taken May 21. Reuters-Yonhap |
South Korea has confirmed its first case of unusual blood clotting in a recipient of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, health authorities said Monday.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said the man in his 30s working at a medical facility was confirmed to have the very rare but serious side effect called thrombocytopenia following inoculation on April 27.
The patient showed symptoms of a severe headache on May 9, the KDCA said. He was admitted to a hospital after having muscle cramps and is now in stable condition.
South Korea has reported only one side effect case out of 3.27 million AstraZeneca recipients, amounting to 0.3 case per 1 million people, the authorities said.
The KDCA said the United Kingdom reported 9.5 cases of blood clotting per 1 million vaccine receipts of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the European Union recorded 10 cases per 1 million people.
Earlier, the rollout of vaccines manufactured by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University was temporarily halted due to the reports of blood clots in some European countries.
The authorities and the World Health Organization, however, advised for vaccinations to be resumed, saying that the vaccine may be associated with blood clots in some very rare cases but its benefits outweigh the risk of possible side effects. (Yonhap)
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