California is slated to receive 380,000 doses of the new one-shot COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson as early as the coming week, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“Excellent news. CA is expecting around 380,000 doses to arrive as early as this week,” Newsom tweeted after the Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine for emergency use.
Initial deliveries of the newly approved vaccine should start on Tuesday, helping to boost vaccination rates across the country, senior Biden administration officials confirmed on Sunday.
J&J’s shot will be the only one-dose COVID vaccine available in the United States. It is also the easiest to ship and store, as it can be kept in a refrigerator rather than a freezer.
The pharmaceutical company expects to ship more than 20 million doses by the end of March and 100 million by midyear — enough to vaccinate nearly a third of Americans.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease official, said on Sunday he would take the newly approved Johnson & Johnson shot, and encouraged Americans to accept any of the three approved vaccines.
“All three of them are really quite good, and people should take the one that’s most available to them. If you go to a place and you have J&J, and that’s the one that’s available now, I would take it,” Fauci said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Reuters contributed to this article.