Wider distribution of Johnson & Johnson vaccine expected this week

• Thousands of doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine is expected to be available in California next week.
• California is administering some 1.4 million doses per week, with plans to reach 4 million weekly.
• “We are administering more vaccines now, formally, than we are receiving from the federal government,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom.

FRESNO COUNTY, California: There is new hope for those anxiously awaiting the coronavirus vaccine, as thousands of doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine are expected to be available in California this week, according to Governor Gavin Newsom.

California is administering some 1.4 million doses per week currently, with plans to reach 4 million doses weekly.

“We are administering more vaccines now, formally, than we are receiving from the federal government. It’s not an indictment. It’s all now about manufactured supply – it’s the only constraint in terms of our capacity to do more and better,” Newsom said, as quoted by The Associated Press.

In the upcoming weeks, California is scheduled to receive modest increases in vaccine supplies.

However, with the emergency authorization granted the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, California is expected to receive some 380,000 doses this week, with a total estimate of 1.1 million doses to be delivered in the next three weeks.

“That single dose provides opportunities to bring those doses and vaccines to where people are, because those doses don’t require the storage that the Pfizer and the Moderna doses require,” Newsom said.

As of last week, California had administered more than 8 million shots.