Johnson & Johnson halting vaccine rollout in Europe

WASHINGTON

Johnson & Johnson announced on Tuesday that it would halt the rollout of its coronavirus vaccine in Europe after US health regulators called for an immediate halt in use.

The company said it has been "reviewing these cases with European health authorities," and "made the decision to proactively delay the rollout of our vaccine in Europe."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration earlier halted the distribution of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine after the discovery of six cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot that developed about two weeks after the jab was administered

Unlike vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires one dose, meaning it greatly reduced the time it would take to fully vaccinate an individual. The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines require two shots spaced apart by four or three weeks, respectively.

The US is in the midst of a sweeping vaccination campaign attempting to outpace new strains of the virus before they can form.

It has administered 190 million vaccines nationwide with about 36% of the population having received at least one dose, according to CDC data. More than 20% of the population has been fully vaccinated.