Medical research

Denmark becomes the first country that has ceased giving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine amid concerns about rare cases of blood clots, the first country to do so entirely.

The move is expected to delay the country's vaccination programme by several weeks.

A study assessing the benefits of mixing and matching coronavirus vaccines has been extended to include the Moderna and Novavax jabs.

The Com-Cov study, led by the University of Oxford, has been investigating the immune responses of volunteers given a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine followed by the Pfizer jab - and vice versa.

As many as 18,630 people (0.81%) in Romania test positive for COVID-19 between December 27, 2020 - April 11, 2021, after receiving the first dose of vaccine, according to information posted by the National Public Health Institute (INSP). As many as 69.2% of them were vaccinated with the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, 5.4% with the Moderna vaccine and 25.4% with the AstraZeneca vaccine.

European Union, US and South Africa and  will temporarily stop the rollout of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Covid jab, after reports of rare blood clotting.

Six cases were detected in more than 6.8 million doses of the vaccine, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said.

Johnson & Johnson has paused its EU rollout, which started this week.

As reported by some media, Gao Fu, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that due to "low effectiveness" the combination of several types of vaccines against Covid 19 was being considered, causing panic among many citizens, although it was later explained that statement was misinterpreted.

The vaccine intention hasn't weakened in Romania, as sociological data shows it standing at 50 percent at least, president of the National COVID Vaccination Coordination Committee (CNCAV) Valeriu Gheorghita said on Tuesday. "I don't think there is a decrease in vaccination interest.

Turkey on April 13 announced a two-week partial lockdown to help curb a recent rise in the novel coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Romania's National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Committee (CNCAV) has reported that in the last 24 hours, 76,590 doses of vaccine were administered, of which 58,050 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, 9,796 of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and 8,744 of the Moderna vaccine, according to data provided by the National Public Health Institute on the National Electronic Vaccination Register application.

Ljubljana – The Covid-19 vaccination task force at the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) has decided the AstraZeneca vaccine will be administered to everyone over 18 years old without any restrictions, a member of the group Alojz Ihan told commercial broadcaster POP TV on Monday. The head of the group, Bojana Beović, confirmed this for the STA.

A new batch of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine consisting of 511,290 doses will arrive in Romania on Monday by air at the airports in Otopeni, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara, according to the National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Committee (CNCAV).