Berlin has stopped giving people under the age of 60 the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine as a “precautionary measure”.
It comes after the country's medical regulator announced 31 cases of rare blood clots in people who had recently received the vaccine. Nine of the people died.
All but two of the cases involved women aged 20 to 63, the Paul Ehrlich Institute, Germany's medical regulator, said.
Several European countries stopped using the Anglo-Swedish firm's vaccine while investigating links with blood clots earlier this month.
However, almost all countries have since resumed using the vaccine, although France said on March 19 it should only be given to people aged 55 or older.
Canadian health officials said on Monday they would stop offering AstraZeneca jabs to people aged under 55 and would await further analysis of its benefits and risks based on age and gender.
No blood clot cases have been reported in Canada, with about 307,000 AstraZeneca doses administered.
Canada’s deputy chief public health officer Howard Njoo said: “We are pausing the use of AstraZeneca vaccine to adults under 55 years of age pending further risk benefit analysis.”
The National Advisory Council of Immunization (NACI), an independent expert panel, said the rate that the clotting complication happens at is not yet clear.
So far, 40 per cent of people who have developed it have died but that may fall as more cases are identified and treated early, it said.
"From what is known at this time, there is substantial uncertainty about the benefit of providing AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to adults under 55 years of age," the council said in a written recommendation.
Additional reporting by the Reuters news agency.
