India will conduct a deeper analysis of post-vaccination side effects from AstraZeneca vaccine next week as several countries suspended rollout over blood clot fears, AFP reported on Saturday. However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said there was no reason to stop using AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 jab.

Denmark, Norway and Iceland paused the use of the drugmaker’s shot as a precaution after isolated reports of recipients developing blood clots.

“We are looking at all the adverse events, particularly serious adverse events like deaths and hospitalisation. We will come back if we find anything of concern,” N.K. Arora, a member of India’s national task force on COVID-19, told AFP.

India has given at least 28 million shots in its vast vaccination programme, most of them AstraZeneca’s which are produced at the Serum Institute of India.

Also read: Five things to know about the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine

New Delhi has also gifted and allowed exports of millions of these jabs to around 70 countries over the last few weeks as a part of its vaccine diplomacy.

Arora said there was “no immediate issue of concern as the number of adverse events (in India) is very, very low. We are relooking at (adverse events that were reported) to see if there was an issue of blood clotting.”

“As of yesterday there were 59 or 60 deaths, and they were all coincidental,” the doctor said, adding hospitalisation cases were being re-examined.

“In fact there is a real effort from our side that once the complete investigation is done, to put its results in the public domain, on the ministry of health website,” Arora added.

India has been using AstraZeneca and indigenous vaccine giant Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin in its rapidly expanding vaccination drive at home.

Also read: Quad leaders vow to expand safe, affordable and effective vaccine production

At least two million people were vaccinated on Friday alone, and this ramp-up comes at a time when COVID-19 cases are rising across different Indian states after weeks of decline.

The western state of Maharashtra has announced fresh restrictions and a week-long lockdown in one of its big cities, Nagpur, after the recent spike across the region.

Fresh restrictions including curbs on movement and public gatherings were also reintroduced in some pockets of the state, which is also expected to impact the economic recovery in its industrial belt.

“Some states in the country have been reporting a very high number of daily new Covid cases. Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu continue to report a surge in Covid daily cases,” the health ministry said in a statement on Friday.

India had registered 23,285 new cases in the last 24 hours, with the six states accounting for 85.6% of the new infections, it added.