/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/DS7SPVW6XBINPMGY7AFHV6TJ6E.jpg "Italy halts AstraZeneca vaccine for under-60s")
Italy halts AstraZeneca vaccine for under-60s
A nurse prepares a dose of AstraZeneca coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine in Fasano Italy, April 13, 2021. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo/File Photo
The Italian government said on Friday it was restricting the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to people over the age of 60, after a teenager who had received the shot died from a rare form of blood clotting.
Camilla Canepa died on Thursday aged 18 after being given the vaccine on May 25, triggering a media and political outcry over the Anglo-Swedish company's shot being used for adults of all ages despite previously-raised medical concerns.
"AstraZeneca will only be used for people over 60," the country's special COVID commissioner Francesco Figliuolo told reporters.
People under the age of 60 who have received a first dose of AstraZeneca should be given a different vaccine for the second dose, the government's chief medical adviser Franco Locatelli said at the same news conference.
"The risk-benefit assessment has changed," Locatelli said, without mentioning the death of Canepa, who suffered from a low platelet count, brain haemorrhage and abdominal blood clots.
