Even though Slovenia decided on Monday to temporarily suspend immunization with the AstraZeneca vaccine, the opinion of Slovenia's medical experts has not changed and they consider it safe for use, a member of the government's Covid task force, infectologist Bojana Beovic, told the press on Tuesday.

“The frequency of blood clots emerging in people who have been inoculated is no higher than occurs in the general population, there is no data on any causal link between that vaccine and that complication, and the professionals in Slovenia are of the opinion that AstraZeneca’s vaccine is safe,” Beovic said in Ljubljana.

She added that the World Health Organization (WHO) had said that there is no need to suspend immunization with that vaccine, that the vaccine is efficient and safe according to all known data.

On the other hand, Beovic added, the government’s response team and the health ministry “understand” the decision by Health Minister, Janez Poklukar, to temporarily suspend vaccination with AstraZeneca as a precautionary measure, until a new analysis is conducted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Beovic said that there has not been one case of blood clotting in Slovenia after administration of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which was the last vaccine to be introduced in that country. There have been four such cases, but following inoculation with the Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine, she said.

Slovenia had started a mass vaccination program for teachers using the AstraZeneca vaccine. However, Slovenians have reportedly become wary of the vaccine after some European countries decided to suspended it following reports that it may cause blood clots.

Several teachers vaccinated recently have developed strong side effects, and the program was suspended out of precaution even prior to the government’s decision on Monday.