Around 2,800 reports of suspected side-effects associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine have been made in Ireland, the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) has said.

According to the HPRA, this is in the context of over 204,000 doses.

Of the 2,800 reports, 18 events are related to blood clots. However, none of these are of the nature of the very rare blood clots of concern, which led to a number of countries, including Ireland, temporarily halting the use of the vaccine recently.

The HPRA released the figures after the results of a review of unusual blood clots linked with the vaccine was published by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). This review concluded that a "causal relationship is considered plausible" between vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine and cases of blood clots, in combination with low blood platelets.

"Although such adverse reactions are very rare, they exceeded what would be expected in the general population. However, the overall benefits of the vaccine in preventing COVID-19 outweigh the risks of side-effects," the HPRA noted.

The EMA report also noted that no specific risk factors in relation to these rare blood clots had been identified at this stage. While cases mostly occurred in women under the age of 60 years, this could be explained by other factors, such as the profile of groups vaccinated.

This issue will be kept under "continuous close review", the HPRA said. It emphasised that it is possible to experience side-effects with all vaccines, however the majority of these "are known to be mild to moderate".

"COVID-19 is a disease itself associated with blood clotting, as well as risk of hospitalisation and death. The overall benefit of vaccination in preventing COVID-19 disease outweighs the risks of known side-effects," the HPRA added.