Johnson & Johnson to deliver 11 million vaccine doses next week, Biden administration says

“We’ve done a lot to help J&J. We’re monitoring that very closely, and we anticipate a significant increase at the end of this month, which will enable them to hit at least 20 million doses,” said White House Covid coordinator Jeffrey Zients, speaking with only five days remaining in March.

The influx of the single-dose vaccine will give a boost to the Biden administration’s goal of administering 200 million shots in the president’s first 100 days — a goal that administration officials said they can meet if they keep their current pace of 2.5 million shots per day. Currently, 1 in 3 adults have been vaccinated, Zients said.

Because the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only a single dose, mass vaccination clinics with the shot are easy to conduct and require limited follow up.

Johnson & Jonson had production issues that the Biden administration helped address by brokering a deal between the company and rival drugmaker Merck to assist in producing the vaccine. Zients said he also expects Pfizer and Moderna to meet their goal of delivering 100 million doses each by the end of March.

Shannon Pettypiece is the senior White House reporter for NBCNews.com.

Category: Science

Source: NBC