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| - Ukraine has no plans to halt the use of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine after reported blood clotting incidents in Europe, the country's health minister said Monday. Several European countries, including Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands, have suspended use of the shot, which was jointly developed with the University of Oxford. Both the British-Swedish company and Oxford have said there is no link between their vaccine and blood clotting, while the World Health Organization and Europe's medicines regulator said they will hold meetings this week to review the safety of the jab. "We didn't even think about it," Stepanov told AFP in an interview Monday when asked if Ukraine had considered suspending the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The jab is the only one available so far in the country. Stepanov added that Ukraine has seen no side effects among those inoculated with the vaccine so far that would lead it to consider a suspension. The ex-Soviet nation of 40 million people launched its vaccination drive at the end of February, later than most European countries. Ukraine has received 500,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine marketed under the name Covishield and produced in India. But many Ukrainians, including the medical workers who are first in line to receive the vaccine, are sceptical of Covishield, which has been criticised on social media for being produced in India rather than the West. Only 53,000 people -- mostly doctors and soldiers -- have received the jab over the first three weeks of the campaign. Stepanov said last week that "anti-vax hysteria" was behind the sluggish start to the jab drive and urged more medical workers to get the shot. ant-dg/emg/pvh
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