US lifts pause from Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 jab

US health regulators lifted an 11-day pause on the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Covid-19 jab but will put a warning label about the possibility of extremely rare blood clots.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) panel earlier said restarting the US rollout of the shot. Fifteen vaccine recipients endured from a serious blood clot out of nearly eight million given the jab.

This week, Europe's drug control also ended restrictions on the J&J vaccine.

European regulators this month also tho similar, highly irregular blood clots to the AstraZeneca Covid-19 shot but found the advantages of the drug exceeded any risks.

On Friday afternoon, the CDC, as well as Food and Drug Administration, swiftly followed the path of the CDC consulting panel after it voted 10-4 to continue rolling out the vaccine for notable 18 years of age and older in line with its original signature. The decision also means at least 10 million doses of the J&J vaccine, shipped from the company's factory in the Netherlands, can be applied across the US now. The health officials on Friday named nine more cases of the blood clots, adding to six cases already known since controls first recognised the jab as safe and efficient in February.

All were women, most under the age of 50. Three died, and seven are in hospital.

About a dozen of the cases concerned women aged 30-39. Seven of the women were fat, two had very high blood pressure, and two were using oral contraceptives, according to health officials.

CDC officers who presented the data on Friday said that a few cases of blood clots in men were being reviewed, too.