North Macedonia’s Health Minister Venko Filipche informed that yesterday during the regular coordination with the members of the Working Group for Immunization and the clinic directors, the opinion of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) regarding the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine was being reviewed. In accordance with EMA’s recommendations, each country should have its own standing about the use of the vaccine and it was decided that the AstraZeneca in North Macedonia will be administered only to people over 60.
“We had a conversation this morning and we analyzed the EMA’s opinion about the safety of AstraZeneca vaccine, and after the evaluation of all adverse effects such as thrombosis especially among younger people, the board issued two recommendations: the first is that all adverse effects should be inserted in the vaccine’s guidelines, and secondly, each country should have its own standing about how the vaccine will be used. Accordingly after the morning briefing we decided not to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine in Macedonia to persons younger than 60,” said Filipche.