Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine will be now recommended to Canadians 30 and older.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunizations (NACI) made the recommendation Monday after Health Canada had authorized the vaccine in early March for use in those 18 and over.
The new advice comes in light of NACI’s U.S. counterpart reporting eight cases of a rare blood clot reaction after taking the Johnson shot, similar to rare reactions from AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
NACI also said the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines should now be preferred for pregnant people after recent data was published indicating their safety during pregnancy. Officials said this is to avoid the risk of the rare but adverse rare blood clot effect happening during pregnancies.
The reactions have been recorded only after the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, both a different type of vaccine than the former two.