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| - Europe's medical regulator is set to give its verdict Thursday on the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine, following a chaotic few weeks that has seen nations suspend its use over blood clot fears. There are "a number of options" open to scientists at the European Medicines Agency (EMA), its chief said earlier this week, including suspending approval for the jab in the EU, with the bloc's inoculation programme already scrambling for vaccines. Despite more than a dozen countries pausing rollouts, the EMA says it has found "no indication" of a serious problem and that the number of post-jab blood clots is no higher than it is among the general, unvaccinated population. The World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday it was better to take the AstraZeneca vaccine than not -- adding that it was looking into available data on the shot. The furore around the jab has marred the global vaccine drive aimed at ending a pandemic that has killed more than 2.6 million people, and comes as several countries report jumps in new cases. France recorded its highest daily caseload in nearly four months Wednesday, with the authorities set to announce measures affecting 18 million people, including a possible weekend lockdown for the hard-hit Paris region. "Let's be clear, we're in a third wave mostly down to the rise of this famous British variant," French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday, referring to the more-contagious variant first detected in the UK. "The situation is critical. It's going to be very hard until mid-April." And the WHO issued a grim update on rising caseloads in Central Europe and the Balkans, where the the situation was "particularly" worrying, said Catherine Smallwood, Senior Emergency Officer at the agency's European office. AstraZeneca's shot, among the cheapest available and easier to store and transport than some of its rivals, has been billed as the vaccine of choice for poorer nations. It is currently a vital part of Covax, which was set up to procure Covid-19 vaccines and ensure their equitable distribution around the world. India -- where cases are also rising -- said Wednesday it would continue to roll out the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is produced by its Serum Institute, in its huge immunisation programme "with full vigour". And in Britain, which has not halted the jab, officials insisted that an expected vaccine shortfall at the end of the month could not scupper plans to lift virus restrictions across the country as the government has promised. Italy, the first European country to become engulfed by the pandemic, held a national day of mourning Thursday, with a ceremony in Bergamo, the northern city that became known as "Italy's Wuhan". Italy chose March 18 for the memorial to coincide with the day in 2020 when the army had to step in to carry away scores of coffins from Bergamo's overwhelmed crematorium. Images of coffin-laden camouflaged trucks crossing the city at night quickly became one of the symbols of the pandemic and still haunt the country today. Meanwhile, vaccination efforts were under way in Chile, where 49 scientists and members of the armed forces working at a research station in the icy wastes of Antarctica got the jab, the first inoculations on the southernmost continent. Antarctica was one of the last places on Earth to be affected by the virus, but on December 21, an outbreak was reported at a Chilean army base, with 36 people infected. On the other side of the South Pacific, Papua New Guinea launched snap restrictions after a surge in cases the government said required "aggressive interventions". For some, vaccines have brought a sigh of relief -- especially for those working on the frontlines. Being vaccinated has allowed Colombian doctor Norberto Medina to return to his job at an intensive care unit in the capital Bogota feeling "more relaxed". Medina, 41, has lived all facets of the pandemic, seeing patients die on his ward, nursing others back to health -- and eventually staring death in the face when he contracted the virus himself. "The pandemic has changed me forever," he told AFP after he returned to work, 54 days after he was diagnosed. "It has made me more humane." bur-jv/txw
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