After weighing guidance, Costa Rica to use AstraZeneca vaccine

Workers load a container holding doses of the AstraZeneca's vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that arrived under the COVAX scheme, in Alajuela, on the outskirts of San Jose, Costa Rica April 7, 2021. REUTERS/Mayela Lopez NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

SAN JOSE (Reuters) - Costa Rica will use AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine after assessing guidance from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on the risks of possible side-effects, the health ministry said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, European and British medicine regulators said they had found possible links between the vaccine and extremely rare cases of brain blood clots, while emphatically reaffirming its importance in mass vaccination against COVID-19.