CA Could Get 1.1M Johnson & Johnson Vaccines In The Next 3 Weeks

CALIFORNIA — California's vaccine rollout is about to undergo another round of significant changes as the Johnson & Johnson product is projected join the state's vaccine lineup this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday during a coronavirus briefing in Fresno.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the single-dose vaccine on Saturday. The state could get 380,300 doses of the single-shot vaccine as early as this week, Newsom said on Friday.

"There’s an urgency to get this done," Dr. Jay Portnoy of Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, told the Associated Press before the vaccine was federally approved. "We’re in a race between the virus mutating — and new variants coming out that can cause further disease — and stopping it."

There are several benefits that make the Johnson & Johnson vaccine more accessible than Moderna and Pfizer as the product does not require ultra-cold storage, and it is just a single shot, Newsom said.

The vaccine was reportedly 66.9 percent effective against coronavirus infections globally at least 14 days after being administered, according to an analysis released by the FDA Wednesday. In the U.S., the vaccine was 72 percent effective.

While the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are around 95 percent effective, experts have said people shouldn't be concerned about a lower efficacy in Johnson & Johnson's product as the shot was found to be 85 percent effective in preventing severe disease and death.

"It’s important that people do not think that one vaccine is better than another," Dr. Cody Meissner of Tufts University told the Associated Press.

As more vaccination centers open up across the state, Newsom has lamented that the vaccine rollout has been hampered by limited supply. But with the addition of the J&J product, Newsom said he anticipates receiving as many as 380,300 doses next week and "predictibly over the next three weeks," bringing an estimated 1.1 million doses of the new vaccine to the state if all goes as planned.

"We are administering more vaccines now, formally, than we are receiving from the federal government," Newsom said. "It’s not an indictment. It’s all now about manufactured supply — it’s the only constraint in terms of our capacity to do more and better."

As of Friday, Newsom said the state had administered more than 8 million shots, adding that he expects to recieve 1.63 million doses next week.

More changes to the vaccine rollout will come down next week under the state's new delivery system managed by Blue Shield. Beginning Monday, all county health departments will move to a state-directed eligibility criteria to eliminate "confusion" on who is eligible to receive a vaccine on a county by county basis.

Under Blue Sheild's leadership, officials said the state is now on track to "create the capacity" to administer 3 million vaccinations per week by March 1.

"While supply is still extremely limited, we need to prepare now for a time in the near future when supply increases and hopefully dramatically," said Yolanda Richardson in a Friday statement. Richardson is Secretary of the Government Operations Agency and head of the state’s vaccine rollout. "We are well on our way to hitting our 3 million doses per week capacity goal, and by the end of April, our goal is to create the capacity to administer 4 million shots per week."

And while the state has been administering more than 1 million vaccines weekly, officials aim to bring that threshold up to 4 million per week by the end of April.

"There is bright light at the end of the tunnel," Newsom said Friday.

The state reported 5,151 new cases of coronavirus Saturday, bringing the statewide total to 3,470,877 cases. There were 439 deaths reported Saturday, bringing the death toll since the beginning of the pandemic up to 51,821.

The state had administered 8,491,076 vaccines as of Saturday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read more about California's vaccine rollout from Patch:

• When Will CA's Coronavirus Vaccine Supply Improve?
• CA Vaccine Rollout: How To Book An Appointment At Rite Aid
• COVID In LA: Newsom Visits Vaccine Sites, Delayed Doses En Route
• Vaccine Rollout: CA To Reserve 10% Of Doses For Teachers
• 5 CA Variant, Vaccine Questions: What You Need To Know
• COVID-19 Vaccination Megasite Opens At Oakland Coliseum

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