Denmark has announced that it will stop using the Oxford University-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine altogether, becoming the first European country to do so over suspected rare but serious side effects.

Despite recommendations from the World Health Organization and European medicines watchdog to continue using the inoculation, “Denmark’s vaccination campaign will go ahead without the AstraZeneca vaccine,” Health Authority director Soren Brostrom said at a news conference.

Denmark was the first country in Europe to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca jab in its vaccination rollout after reports of rare but serious cases of blood clots among those who had received the vaccine. More than a dozen countries followed suit, but a few have since resumed use of the vaccine after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) emphasized the benefits of the vaccine and deemed it “safe and effective.”

Denmark had however continued to hold off using the vaccine as it conducted investigations of its own.

Sisanda Mpiti.