The Georgia Department of Public Health on Tuesday announced that it is temporarily stopping the administration of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control have urged a halt after blood clot side effects were reported in six known cases. Johnson & Johnson has distributed more than 7 million doses of the single-dose vaccine.
The FDA-CDC statement said all six cases of blood clotting occurred among women between the ages of 18 and 48, and symptoms occurred 6 to 13 days after vaccination.
Johnson & Johnson is one of three COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, and has more than 330,000 doses that have been allocated Georgia, according to the DPH vaccine dashboard.
More than 3 million Pfizer vaccines have been distributed in the state, along with more than 2.8 million of the Moderna vaccines.
In Cobb County, nearly 300,000 vaccine doses have been administered, with more than 116,000 residents, or 16 percent, fully vaccinated, according to Cobb and Douglas Public Health director Dr. Janet Memark.
She told the Cobb Board of Commissioners Tuesday that “I am grateful that they are looking at the safety of this as we go along. . . . This is very rare right now.”
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