Spain restarts use of AstraZeneca vaccine as incidence of coronavirus creeps upwards

MADRID - Spain restarted the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Wednesday after a temporary suspension over fears of its relevance with blood clotting, as daily COVID-19 vaccination peaks record high in the country.

The return of the vaccine saw an increase of vaccination on Wednesday with 210,897 doses of vaccine administered, the highest daily vaccinations since the start of Spain's vaccination program on Dec. 27, 2020.

A total of 6,620,093 doses of vaccine have been administered since then, with 2,276,233 people receiving both doses of the vaccine.

Also on Wednesday, the Spanish Ministry of Health confirmed 7,026 new COVID-19 cases, lifting the total number of cases to 3,241,345. The total number of deaths increased by 320 to 74,064.

"We are at a key moment in which we have to tighten our controls," Health Minister Carolina Darias told a press conference on Wednesday.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in many countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

Meanwhile, 267 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 83 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on March 23.