AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine, of which Chile received its first shipment on Friday, will only be administered to men, the country's government has announced.
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In Europe, the vaccine from the Anglo-Swedish laboratory has seen its use restricted in many countries due to very rare cases of thrombosis, mostly occurring in young patients.
Last week Chile's Institute of Public Health (ISP), which in January granted emergency authorization for the vaccine, recommended its use in women over 55 and men over 18.
Read also: AstraZeneca: the EMA still judges that the benefits outweigh the risks
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Friday that after a new study, the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine increased with age and continued to outweigh the risks.
And despite reports that cases of blood clots were more common in women, the EMA said there was "
not enough data available across the EU
" to say the risks are linked to the sex.
The shipment of 158,400 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived Friday is the first received by Chile under the Covax mechanism of the World Health Organization (WHO) which aims to guarantee equitable access to anti-Covid vaccines.
Chile is one of the fastest growing countries in its vaccination process. Some 7.9 million people have been vaccinated with at least one dose out of a total population of 19 million.