World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the use of Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine whose single dose has 85.4% efficacy rate.
As per details, WHO has approved Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to be used for inoculating people against the novel virus.
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Expressing his views on the development, WHO Chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that Every new, safe and effective tool against Covid-19 is another step closer to controlling the pandemic.
As new vaccines become available, we must ensure they become part of the global solution, and not another reason some countries and people are left further behind, he added.
WHO’s approval comes as earlier, European Union (EU) had approved the use of Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine’s use has also been approved by various organizations/bodies in USA, Canada and South Africa.
It is to be noted that WHO has already approved COVID-19 vaccines produced by Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech.
The development is a significant step in realization of WHO’s COVAX initiative which is aimed at providing 337.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to countries around the world. Approval of Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine will add another 500 million doses to the COVAX programme.
Under the COVAX programme, Pakistan will receive 14,640,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses; Indonesia – 11,704,800 doses; Bangladesh – 10,908,000 doses; Brazil – 9,122,400 doses and Nigeria will receive 13,656,000 doses.
According to WHO, clinical trials of Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine have revealed that the vaccine is effective for older population; however, it has less efficacy than vaccine produced by Pfizer and Morderna.
Meanwhile, decision regarding approval of China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccine is expected to be made in the prevailing month.
