Health Canada has approved the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
It's the fourth vaccine to get the green light in Canada and is the first and only one the federal government has purchased that requires just a single dose.
AM800 broke the news to Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed during the health unit's daily COVID-19 briefing.
Dr. Ahmed says he's excited and believes it's another important milestone in the fight against COVID-19.
"I think it's a good vaccine and again it gives us more tools in our arsenal to combat COVID and I'm sure that this vaccine will be very much appreciated by our primary care providers especially," says Dr. Ahmed. "I know our primary care providers are ready to vaccinate people and given that they can keep it in their normal vaccine fridge and able to vaccinate people, I think this will be a really important milestone in our fight with COVID."
He says there are benefits to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
"The efficacy was between 80 to 85 per cent with this vaccine and it's a single dose vaccine so that's another benefit of not having to worry about how do we track people for their second dose," he says.
Canada has pre-purchased 10-million doses, with options for another 28-million.
Health Canada previously approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the Moderna vaccine and the AstraZeneca vaccine.
- with files from AM800's Paul McDonald