Ireland and the Netherlands became the latest countries to suspend their rollouts of AstraZeneca jabs over concerns about post-jab blood clots despite the firm insisting there was no risk.

A spokesman for Ireland's health ministry told AFP that the rollout had been “temporarily deferred” after the country's advisory panel recommended a suspension because of concerns raised by Norwegian officials.

The Dutch health ministry similarly said it was suspending the rollout as a precaution, according to AFP.

An AstraZeneca spokesman said it had found no evidence of increased risk of blood clot conditions after analysing reported cases from more than 17 million doses.