| Administration of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio will be paused following a recommendation by federal agencies, governors of those states announce.
The Centers for Disease Control and Administration had recommended that the vaccine be paused after reports of potentially dangerous blood clots, saying the risk is minimal.
Health experts say 'One in a million' chance of getting blood clots from COVID vaccine.
âThe safety of West Virginians is always our first and foremost priority,â Gov. Jim Justice said in a news release. âThis pause will not impact our ability to continue vaccinating West Virginians and is exactly the reason why we stood up our Joint Interagency Task Force led by our West Virginia National Guard. They were absolutely ready for this scenario.â
Justice said the move to pause the vaccine is being taken out of an abundance of caution.
The news release said the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, through the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, has not received any reports of these extremely rare blood-clotting events in West Virginia residents who have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The DHHR will continue to monitor for instances going forward, the news release said.
So far in West Virginia, more than one million total doses of vaccine have been administered. It was not immediately clear how many of those doses were from Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Moderna. The DHHR said more than 461,000 residents have been fully vaccinated.
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