By Tim Mastro

WILMINGTON — Delaware has received its first 8,000 doses of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and has scheduled the first clinics of the one-dose vaccine for this weekend.

The Delaware Division of Public Health is sending out invitations to its vaccine waiting list for events on Saturday at Seaford High School and Sunday at the Delaware City Division of Motor Vehicles. These events will be by appointment only; anyone without proof of an appointment will be turned away.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is the third vaccine to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use. The previous two, Pfizer and Moderna, are both two-dose vaccines while the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is the first one-dose vaccine to be approved.

With now three options for vaccines, Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of the DPH, said the state is advising individuals to take the first vaccine that becomes available.

“Our message to the public, our position as an agency and my recommendation as a doctor, is for eligible individuals to get vaccinated with the first vaccine available to you,” Dr. Rattay said. “When you get that first available opportunity, please take advantage of it, regardless of the vaccine type.”

During the state’s weekly COVID-19 briefing, Dr. Rattay presented data stating the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is 100% effective at preventing hospitalization and death from COVID-19. The vaccine is 85% effective at preventing moderate to severe COVID disease and 72% effective in preventing symptomatic infection.

Like the other two vaccines, an individual will not contract COVID-19 from taking the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines however, it is not a MRNA vaccine, rather it is an adenovirus-based vaccine.

An adenovirus-based vaccine means a small piece of genetic material from the coronavirus is inserted into a weakened version of a common cold virus called an adenovirus. The immune system responds by switching on the cells’ alarm systems to activate immune cells nearby. The immune cells spot the intruder proteins of COVID-19 to fight the infection.

A chart comparing the three vaccines is available here.

Dr. Rattay said the 8,000 doses received this week could be the only Johnson & Johnson doses delivered to the state this month.

Delaware had received a total of 251,060 vaccine doses as of Monday at 11:59 p.m., plus an additional 48,815 doses delivered as part of the Federal Pharmacy Program. It has administered 228,097 doses, although the state is still entering data into its immunization information system DelVAX from a mass vaccination clinic this week, so the number of administered doses is likely higher. Dr. Rattay said the data should be caught up in a few days.

Of the estimated 128,000 senior citizens on the state’s waiting list, about 58,000 have received at least their first dose of vaccine, meaning more than half have yet to get a first dose. An additional 3,500 doses are being administered to those on the waiting list at sites in Wilmington, Dover and Georgetown this week by one of the state’s partners, Curative Inc.

Gov, John Carney called the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine a game-changer for the state’s distribution plan.

“It’s one and done, that’s beautiful when you talk about being able to do large clinics,” Gov. John Carney said. “That makes it so much easier.”

Delaware’s focus was on second doses for the last two weeks, buoyed by a seven-day large-scale vaccination clinic at Dover International Speedway, run through a partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The first six days were for second doses while the seventh day was opened up to educators and child-care providers for their first doses.

Dr. Rattay said all spots were filled except for Friday afternoon, however there were a large number of no-shows later in the week, which caused the state to fall short of its goal of 18,000 second doses.

“What that means to us is that they got themselves their second dose somewhere else,” Dr. Rattay said. “You can look at that two ways. Of course we want to use every opportunity to get vaccine into people but clearly that second-dose demand has clearly subsided. People met their second-dose needs last week, either through our FEMA pod or other places in the community such as pharmacies and hospitals.”

Dr. Rattay said the leftover doses were taken back to the DPH’s warehouse and will be used for other events this week.

The FEMA event was originally set up to provide second doses for those who attended state-run clinics at DMV sites in Dover, Delaware City and Georgetown during the middle of January.

“That’s the challenge of having big events for first doses is you’ve got to replicate it down the road and you’ve got to have the supply to replicate it,” Gov. Carney said.

Some of those original DMV sites reported wait times of more than five hours due to issues with registration and traffic patterns. But the average wait time for a vaccine at the FEMA event was 15-20 minutes from check-in to administration of the dose.

“It was fantastic, there’s no other way of putting it,” Gov. Carney said. “It was as smooth as could be. ... We were able to take a lot of people and get them their second doses. which was a big concern. If you have a big vaccination clinic for first doses with a two-dose vaccine you got to come back 21 or 28 days later and do it again. That was a challenge and it enabled us to do that. Frankly, from a psychological point of view, it gave those who might have had a negative experience with their first dose a positive experience with their second dose.”