Benefits of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine increase with age: EU's watchdog

The EU's drug watchdog on Friday said that Oxford-AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine's benefits increase with age. 

"It showed that the benefits of vaccination increase with increasing age and infection rates," the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in a statement said, as quoted by news agency AFP.

Watch | 

The EMA also said that its benefits to adults still outweigh the risks despite reports of blood clots. 

"The benefits of Vaxzevria outweigh its risks in adults of all age groups; however, very rare cases of blood clots with low blood platelets have occurred following vaccination," the statement further said, taking the official brand name for AstraZeneca's vaccine.

Earlier, the European Commission asked the EMA to look into concerns after several countries banned the drugs for older people. 

Concerns rose after the EU's watchdog on April 7 said that a very rare, but often fatal form of blood clotting should be taken as a side-effect of the drug. 

Also read | Germany says AstraZeneca lawsuit 'not priority' for now

Britain's medicines regulator earlier on Thursday said there had been 168 major blood clots following a jab of AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, a rate of 7.9 cases per million doses, news agency Reuters reported. 

This was more than 100 clot cases reported last week by the UK. 

The UK has urged under-30s to receive an alternative to the Oxford-AstraZeneca drug, while several European countries have restricted the drug's use to young adults. 

France has said that only people above the age of 55 are allowed to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab.