COVID-19: Oxford vaccine trial paused after 'unexplained illness' in volunteer

Guwahati: Late-stage investigations of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine candidate have been hold while the company examines whether a recipient's "potentially unexplained" illness is a side effect of the shot.

In an announcement on Tuesday evening, the company said its "standard review process triggered a pause to vaccination to allow review of safety data".

AstraZeneca didn't reveal any data, but termed it as "a potentially unexplained illness".

The wellbeing news site STAT first reported the pause in testing, saying a possible side effect occurred in the United Kingdom. An AstraZeneca representative confirmed the delay in vaccinations covers studies in the US and other nations.

Toward the end of last month, AstraZeneca started enrolling 30,000 individuals in the US for its biggest study of the vaccine. It also is trying the vaccine, developed by Oxford University, in a huge number of people in Britain, and in smaller studies in Brazil and South Africa.