ROME, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The regional health commission in Italy's Lombardy said Saturday that public confidence in the country's use of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been hindered by safety fears.
Giovanni Pavesi, director-general of the Lombardy Region Welfare Department, told health officials and reporters, mostly via video hookup, that reports of health concerns tied to the AstraZeneca vaccine have resulted in people turning down that vaccine.
"This is a more serious problem than we anticipated," Pavesi said, adding the hesitation over AstraZeneca is having an impact on the broader rollout in his region and elsewhere.
Both Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and the country's president, Sergio Mattarella, were vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Lombardy, which includes Italy's financial capital of Milan, is the country's most populous region. The region was hit hardest by the coronavirus in terms of total cases and the overall mortality rate.
In April, distribution of the AstraZeneca vaccine was halted for four days while officials looked into the concerns that it could cause blood clots in some patients. At least two deaths in Italy have been linked to blood clots in patients who had recently received the vaccine.
More recently, distribution of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was paused just as it was about to start, based on similar concerns in the United States, where there were six deaths among the more than 6.8 million patients who received the vaccine there.
There have been no significant reports of serious health concerns with the vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna, the other vaccines approved for use in Italy.
As of Saturday, nearly 14.8 million Italians have received at least one dose of a vaccine and nearly 4.4 million have been fully vaccinated, the equivalent of 7.3 percent of the country's total population.
Meanwhile, 272 candidate vaccines -- including 88 in clinical trials -- are being developed worldwide, including in Germany, Britain, China, United States, and Russia, according to data provided by the World Health Organization up to April 13.
