US federal health agencies have recommended pausing the use of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine after six recipients developed a rare disorder involving blood clots.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will hold an advisory meeting on Wednesday to review the cases.
All the six recipients were women between the ages of 18 and 48. One woman died and a second in Nebraska has been hospitalized in critical condition, the New York Times reported, citing officials.
The CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration said in a joint statement that the adverse events appear to be extremely rare right now.
In a series of tweets, the FDA said it and the CDC were reviewing “six reported US cases of a rare & severe type of blood clot in individuals after receiving the vaccine. Right now, these adverse events appear to be extremely rare”.
“We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution,” it said.
This was to “ensure that the health care provider community is aware of the potential for these adverse events”.
As of April 12, more than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been administered in the United States.
The move from the US regulators comes less than a week after Europe’s drugs regulator said it was reviewing rare blood clots in four people in the United States who received the shot.
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