THERE is "no evidence whatsoever" that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is causing blood clots, Scotland's chief medical officer has said.

Dr Gregor Smith said the actual number of clotting incidents which had occurred among the 17 million people given the vaccine so far in the UK and continental Europe was "in fact somewhat less" that would be expected.

It comes after Ireland and the Netherlands became the latest countries to suspend the use of the vaccine following reports of blood clot deaths and illness in patients who had been inoculated using the jag.

Eight countries, including Denmark and Norway, have so far completely halted the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccinations pending further investigation, while Italy and Austria have stopped using supplies from a particular batch.

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Dr Smith said it was normal for one to two individuals in every 1000 people per year to suffer blood clots.

This can include strokes caused by a blood clot blocking oxygen to the brain; heart attacks caused when clots block an artery; pulmonary embolisms - a blood clot on the lung; or a deep vein thrombosis.

"We're not seeing any signal come through whatsoever that suggests that there are any more blood clots than would be expected with this population," said Dr Smith

"In fact, to be honest with you, it's somewhat less."

Nearly everyone over 65 in Scotland has had at least one dose of Covid vaccine, using either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines.

Regulators in the UK and Europe - the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) respectively - both say the vaccine is safe to use. 

As part of the vaccination programme, all health incidents that occur shortly after a person is vaccinated are routinely recorded and reported to regulators through the yellow card scheme.

This enables them to identify any excess patterns of deaths, disease, and adverse events.

"They are not seeing that," said Dr Smith.

"At this point in time there is no evidence whatsoever of causality between this small number of reported incidents, and use of the vaccine."

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First Minister Nicola Sturgeon stressed that the Scottish Government has no plans to suspend the rollout, stressing that there is "no current evidence of an increase in blood clots".

Ms Sturgeon urged the public to continue coming forward to be vaccinated given the evidence that it is leading to a reduction in Covid deaths, hospitalisations and transmission among those inoculated.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland's chief medical officer said he did not hesitate in having an AstraZeneca vaccine, despite the temporary pause of its rollout in the Irish Republic.

Dr Michael McBride received his first jab on Monday as the vaccination programme north of the border opened to those aged 50 and above.

He said the UK's MHRA had made clear there was no evidence of a link between the vaccine and reported cases of blood clots.

He said there had been no reported concerns of vaccine linkage to clotting in Northern Ireland.

"I didn't need to be called a second time this morning when the opportunity was to get my vaccine," he said.

In regard to the clotting reports, Dr McBride said: "The MHRA is very clear that they do not feel that those are linked to the vaccine and are probably random events which are occurring, and would have occurred, normally.

"What the public should be assured of is that the MHRA is a global leader in safety and efficacy of vaccines and is publishing data on side effects on a weekly basis."

The head of the Oxford University vaccine group has also sought to reassure the public over its safety.

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Professor Andrew Pollard said that while it was right that regulators investigated reports of blood clots in people who have had the vaccine, data from millions of people was "very reassuring" that there was no link.

Prof Pollard said "safety is clearly absolutely paramount" but that about 3,000 cases of blood clots occur every month in the UK from other causes.

"So, when you then put a vaccination campaign on top of that, clearly those blood clots still happen and you've got to then try and separate out whether, when they occur, they are at all related to the vaccine or not," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Prof Pollard said that more than 11 million doses have now been given in the UK, and the MHRA has said "very clearly that they're not seeing any increase in the number of cases of blood clots" over what they would see normally.

"I think at this moment we've got the most data from the UK, which looks very reassuring, but of course it's absolutely right that there's careful monitoring of safety and this gets looked into," he said.

The professor pointed to the "huge risks" from Covid-19 for those who are unvaccinated, adding that "if we have no vaccination and we come out of lockdown in this country, we will expect tens of thousands of more deaths to occur during this year".

He continued: "A number of countries around Europe are now seeing an increase in cases again.

"Italy and France and Germany and Poland - all have the start of a new surge in cases.

"It's absolutely critical that we don't have a problem of not vaccinating people and have the balance of a huge risk - a known risk of Covid - against what appears so far from the data that we've got from the regulators - no signal of a problem."