American pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson‘s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for emergency use in India, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya confirmed on Saturday. This makes it the fifth vaccine authorised for emergency use in India, after AstraZeneca/Oxford University’s Covishield, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Russia’s Sputnik V and the Moderna vaccine.  

“India expands its vaccine basket!

Johnson and Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine is given approval for Emergency Use in India.

Now India has 5 EUA vaccines.

This will further boost our nation’s collective fight against #COVID19,” Mandaviya tweeted. 

“We are pleased to announce that on 7th August 2021, the Government of India issued Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 single-dose vaccine in India, to prevent COVID in individuals 18 years of age and older,” NDTV quoted a J&J spokesperson as saying. 

This comes a day after the firm had applied for emergency use authorisation, which it said was an “important milestone that paves the way for bringing the company’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine to the people of India”. 

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The company has partnered with Hyderabad-based biotech firm Biological E for its global supply chain network, saying the Indian firm will help supply its Janssen vaccine through extensive collaborations and partnerships with governments, health authorities and organisation such as GAVI and COVAX Facility. 

Studies have shown that the vaccine is 66% effective in preventing moderate to severe illness and 85% effective in preventing severe cases of COVID-19. 

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Meanwhile, India has crossed the milestone of administering 50 crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The government administered over 43.29 lakh doses in Friday, taking the total number of vaccinations under the nation-wide drive to over 50.1 crore. 

The country took 85 days to touch the figure of 10 crore. It then took 45 days to cross the 20-crore mark and 29 more days to reach 30 crore. India took another 24 days to reach 40 crore and 20 more days to cross 50 crore vaccinations.