Medical experts say blood clots linked to COVID-19 vaccines remain extremely rare and Australians should continue to roll up their sleeves for the jab.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration reported a 52-year-old NSW woman died from a blood clot in the brain - the second person to do so out of 3.6 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine delivered.
Of the 48 confirmed and probable cases of people who have developed clots after receiving the vaccine, 31 have been discharged from hospital and are recovering.
Fifteen remain in hospital.
Extending his condolences, Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said Australia was getting very good at diagnosing and treating the condition
Victorian state chief health officer Brett Sutton receives the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
Photo: AFP
Brett Sutton said the Indian variant known as the Delta strain had been identified in cases that were unrelated to all of the other cases in our cluster thus far in Melbourne .
He said the variant was infamous in India and the United Kingdom. It is a variant of significant concern, Professor Sutton said. It spread extremely rapidly across India, it s become the predominant variant, indeed almost the exclusive variant there, and in surrounding countries.
He said authorities had been unable to closely link the cases to other Delta variant cases previously sequenced from hotel quarantine systems across Australia.