Johnson and Johnson

The doses are to be donated through the COVAX Facility.

The agreement to allow for NZ to supply the extra single-shot vaccines, has been signed by the Minister of Finance, Johnny Koanapo.

The first 28, 800 J&J vaccine were received from the governments of Portugal and Netherlands through the COVAX Facility early last month.

J&J is the third vaccine to be introduced in Vanuatu, after AstraZeneca and Sinopharm.

Vanuatu's Minister of Health, Sailas Bule, said the government of Vanuatu asked for Johnson and Johnson vaccines to better respond to the challenges of distance and storage, as other covid vaccines cannot reach the people who live in remote areas.

Mr Bule said Vanuatu's ministry of health has a distribution plan in place for getting the covid vaccine to remote areas including the west coast of Santo.

He said Vanuatu should be proud it has remained Covid free apart from five cases that have been managed at the border.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said six cases in 6.8 million doses had been reported and it was acting "out of an abundance of caution".

Following the news, South Africa, the first country to use the jab, said it would suspend its rollout.

Johnson & Johnson said it would also delay its vaccine drive in Europe.

The US move follows similar rare cases in the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has prompted some curbs in its use.

The firm faces many thousands of lawsuits from consumers who claim that its talc products caused their cancer.

The move comes after years of litigation where Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay out billions of dollars in compensation.

The company has consistently defended the safety of its talc products.

Johnson & Johnson said it would wind down sales of the product, which makes up about 0.5% of its US consumer health business, in the coming months, but that retailers would continue to sell existing inventory.