Johnson & Johnson COVID Vaccine Arrives In NYC

NEW YORK CITY — The first doses of Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine arrived in New York City — a long-awaited potential "game changer" in the city's effort to fight back the pandemic.

"This is going to revolutionize our approach to being vaccinated,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.

What sets the J&J vaccine apart is, unlike the two-shot vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna, it only requires a single dose.

The city is embarking on a mass effort to get the J&J vaccine to home bound seniors under the reasoning that a one-shot vaccine will limit potential coronavirus exposures as they get vaccinated.

FDNY personnel on Wednesday began such vaccinations in Co-op City in the Bronx and Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, where many seniors live.

But it could take weeks for the city to receive the J&J vaccine's full advantage.

Dave Chokshi, the city's health commissioner, said Thursday there were 16,300 J&J doses on hand, with another 8,000 in transit.

Those roughly 24,000 shots pale in comparison to the 190,000 Pfizer and Moderna first doses the city receives weekly, Chokshi said.

In total, city health officials expect to receive 71,000 J&J doses over the next weeks.

"It will be a relatively low number with respect to Johnson & Johnson doses before picking up in terms of supply by the end of March," Chokshi said.

De Blasio noted the city hasn't yet had a single week in which it received the 500,000 doses it can distribute. He said the city so far has still put 2.1 million doses into New Yorkers' arms — more than the population of Phoenix.

All three available vaccines have proven safe and effective, he said.

"The best vaccine is the one you can get now," he said.