UK coronavirus LIVE: Austria suspends AstraZeneca vaccine after death as PM says he’s ‘very hopeful’ about schools reopening

Boris Johnson during a visit to a vaccination centre at Jesus House for All The Nations, a church in Brent, North London

(PA)

Authorities in Austria have suspended inoculations of a batch of the AstraZeneca/Oxford coronavirus vaccine while they investigate the death of one person after receiving a jab, said a health agency.

The Federal Office for Safety in Health Care (BASG) said it received reports that a 49-year-old woman died as a result of severe coagulation disorders, while a 35-year-old woman developed a pulmonary embolism and is recovering, after receiving doses of the Oxford baccine from the same batch.

It added that there is “no evidence of a casual relationship with the vaccination” but the remaining stocks of the affected vaccine batch are no longer being used as a “precautionary measure”.

It comes as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned the risk of keeping classrooms locked outweighs the risk of a school-led spike in coronavirus cases. He told reporters on Sunday: “You ask about the risk (of schools returning) – I think the risk is actually in not going back to school tomorrow given all the suffering, all the loss of learning we have seen.”

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