Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses will take major drop next week

The number of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses will drop significantly next week, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.

The CDC statistics show about 85 percent fewer Johnson & Johnson doses will go out next week compared to this week, dropping from about 4.9 million to 700,000. 

Johnson & Johnson has had uneven manufacturing of its single-dose vaccine for weeks, and problems mounted at the end of March when an error at a plant in Baltimore had ruined up to 15 million doses, The New York Times reported.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), though, said at a news conference on Thursday that he was told the drop-off was not related to the factory error.

“The amount that we’re receiving next week, which is down very considerably, is not, I’m told, impacted by what happened in that factory,” DeWine said. “So we’ve got a couple weeks of a lot less Johnson & Johnson.”

Ohio’s Johnson & Johnson allocation is dropping from 171,900 doses to 20,300 doses next week, according to CDC data.

A Johnson & Johnson spokesperson did not immediately respond when asked to explain the drop, or whether the company is still on track to meet its target of 24 million doses in the month of April. 

Still, Johnson & Johnson has been a relatively small part of the U.S. vaccination campaign, and Pfizer and Moderna doses are holding steady.

About 90 million Pfizer doses have been administered, and about 80 million Moderna doses, compared to about 5 million Johnson & Johnson doses, according to CDC data.