South Africa has suspended giving Johnson & Johnson vaccine shots as a “precautionary measure” whilst the company delayed its European vaccine rollout following the FDA decision to pause using the jabs while blood clot cases are examined. South Africa has given more than 289,000 jabs of the J&J vaccine to the country’s health workers without any reports of blood clots, Health Minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize told reporters. He said South Africa was halting the use of J&J jabs “out of an abundance of caution” and he expects that the questions over the J&J vaccine should “be cleared within a matter of days.” Earlier, Johnson & Johnson said it was delaying the rollout of its coronavirus vaccine across Europe amid the U.S. probe, a move that experts worried could further shake vaccine confidence and complicate COVID-19 immunization efforts. The announcement came after regulators in the United States said they were recommending a “pause” in the single-dose shot to investigate reports of rare but potentially dangerous blood clots.. The delay is a further blow to vaccination efforts in the European Union, which have been plagued by supply shortages, logistical problems and concerns over unusual blood clots in a small number of people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is made by a process similar to the J&J shot.
SOURCE: AFRICA NEWS