NEW YORK, April 24. /TASS/. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has lifted restrictions on Johnson & Johnson's vaccine, Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock announced on Friday.

According to her, the use of the vaccine was renewed following the recommendations of a panel of experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) following their vote.

Head of the CDC Rochelle Walensky said that vaccination with this drug can resume immediately. FDA spokesman Peter Marks suggested that Johnson & Johnson's first vaccinations could be given as early as Saturday morning.

On April 13, Johnson & Johnson announced it had postponed the use of its vaccine in European countries following reports about possible connection of the drug with the formation of blood clots. The decision was made after the recommendation of US regulators to suspend the use of the drug in the United States due to possible side effects that the vaccine can cause. In particular, six cases of formation of blood clots post-vaccination were registered in the country.

The use of the vaccine in Europe was authorized by the European Medicines Agency back on March 11. Its deliveries were to begin in the first week of April. It was reported earlier that the European Commission relied heavily on Johnson & Johnson vaccine to speed up national vaccination campaigns in Europe, which are behind schedule due to numerous delays in vaccine supplies.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.