The European Union’s drug regulator Wednesday approved booster shots of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for adults who received their first dose of the vaccine at least two months prior.
In a statement, the Europe Medicines Agency (EMA) said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine may also be taken by people who had received the full two-shot dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines as well.
The EMA said it will continue to look at all available data on the safety and efficacy of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
In its statement, the agency said individual national public health agencies may issue their own official recommendations on the use of booster doses, considering the local epidemiological situation, availability of vaccines, and emerging effectiveness and the limited safety data for the booster dose.
The Johnson & Johnson shot is the third vaccine approved for boosters by the EMA, after the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
Johnson & Johnson had presented results from a large study it conducted indicating a second dose of its vaccine just two months after the first increased protection against COVID-19 symptoms from 70% to 94% in U.S. recipients.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.