Finland discontinues the Astrazeneca vaccine despite EMA's announcement

Finland has grown the latest Scandinavian country to check the AstraZeneca vaccine - despite the European Medicines Agency (EMA) assuming it was "safe and efficient".

The country's public health officials said two people got blood clots after being vaccinated. As a result, jabs will be suspended "until there is more news and a potential causality can be judged".

Dozens of European countries had rejected the vaccine amid reports of blood clots.

Some, such as Italy, Germany and Spain, showed they would restart AstraZeneca shots after the EMA's safety report on Thursday.

But Norway, Sweden and Denmark said they would not be raising their suspensions.

All three countries said they were studying the EMA verdict that the vaccine's benefits outweigh its risks following 25 reports of rare but dangerous blood clots in Europe.

France's health officials said on Friday that shots could restart, but only in people over the age of 55, citing serious problems of rare blood clots in young people who took the AstraZeneca vaccine as the reason why.

Geir Bukholm, the leader of the Division of Infection Control at the Norwegian Institute for Public Health, said the treatment pause would continue in Norway.

"Due to the several serious problems in Norway, we want to thoroughly review the site before we make a conclusion," he said. "This will take some time, and we will give an update at the end of next week."

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Sweden's public health agency said their state regulator was reviewing cases of blood clots in the country.

Professor Neil Mabbott, chair of immunopathology at the University of Edinburgh, said resolves to stop the AstraZeneca vaccine were "overcautious" as it is determined to stop death and hospitalization and was given the raw light by the EU and UK regulators.