CANBERRA, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was not worried about the decision by European countries to suspend the use of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine.
Denmark, Norway and Iceland have all stopped the rollout of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine after it was linked to blood clots in recipients.
Addressing the concerns on Friday, Morrison, who is also the acting health minister, said he was confident in Australia's quality control measures.
"The (Therapeutic Goods Administration) obviously looks at these reports when they come through, but they do their own batch testing," he said. "I was watching them do it just earlier this week."
"We have a very robust process for examining that," he said.
The Australian government has agreed to acquire 53.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, significantly more than any other vaccine, and 50 million doses will be manufactured domestically.
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said there was currently no evidence the vaccine causes blood clots.
"Safety is our first priority and in a large vaccine rollout like this, we need to monitor carefully for any unusual events so we will find them," he said in a statement.
As of Friday, Australia had administered about 135,000 vaccines.
Morrison on Friday defended the rate of vaccinations after the Australian Medical Association (AMA) warned that the government would not meet its goal of inoculating the entire population by October, saying the rollout has been delayed by short supply.
"That obviously has an impact on the amount of doses available in the early stages of the rollout," he said.
