Denmark will extend its suspension of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for an additional three weeks to give time for further assessment, the country’s health authority announced on Thursday.

“At this time, we believe that our basis for making a final decision on any future use of the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca is too uncertain. Many studies have been initiated, but we do not yet have any conclusions. Therefore, the hold on using the vaccine remains in effect,” the Director-General of the nation's health authority, Søren Brostrøm, said on Thursday. The statement was issued in English as well as Danish.

Denmark was one of the first European countries to put the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on hold earlier this month, after concerns of increased risks of blood clots in patients post-inoculation were registered in the country.

The European Medicines Agency last week found that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine “is safe and effective in preventing Covid-19 and its benefits continued to be far greater than its risks” but that it could not “rule out definitively” a possible link with blood clots. Most European countries including Germany, Italy, France, Spain have since restarted the use of the shot.

Approximately 150,000 people in Denmark had already received the AstraZeneca shot before it was suspended.