The independent commission advising the German government on vaccination policy has recommended that the AstraZeneca vaccine not be used for people aged over 65, in a move likely to complicate the acrimonious rollout of the jab in the EU.

A statement by the Standing Vaccine Commission at the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s main public health agency, said there were “insufficient data currently available to ascertain how effective the vaccination is above 65 years”.

For that reason, the commission recommended that the vaccine only be used for people aged between 18 and 64. The body added that the two vaccines that had been approved by the EU authorities — from BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna — were judged to be “equivalent in terms of safety and efficacy”.