Coronavirus Watch: Committee may decide today to lift J&J vaccine pause

A government advisory committee is meeting Friday to discuss next steps on the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The meeting comes more than a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration recommended a pause due to reports of severe blood clots – in six women out of the more than 7 million Americans who recently got the shot, and one man from an earlier clinical trial.

A number of experts said they expect the committee to lift the hold on the shot. Depending on what the committee learns about a mysterious blood clotting ailment, it might add an age restriction or simply a warning label to the vaccine.

It's Friday, and this is the Coronavirus Watch from the USA TODAY Network. Here's more news you need to know:

• The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are effective in preventing serious illness and death from the New York variants, two independent studies found, according to the New York Times.
• COVID-19 in cats? Researchers in the U.K. found two cases of human-to-cat transmission of the coronavirus, the Guardian reported. But the study showed no evidence of people being infected by their pets.
• Two university systems jointly announced they will both require all students and staff returning for on-campus classes and activities to be fully vaccinated.
• Japan declared a third state of emergency Friday, which will last until May 11 to discourage holiday traveling. The Olympics committee reaffirmed its determination to hold the summer games.
• India is seeing the world’s worst coronavirus surge, setting a grim record for daily infections for a second straight day with 332,730. India recorded 2,263 deaths in the past 24 hours. Adding to the deaths, a fire in Mumbai killed 13 COVID-19 patients early Friday when an air conditioning unit exploded in a hospital's ICU.

Today's numbers: The U.S. has reported more than 31.9 million COVID-19 cases and 570,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been more than 144.9 million cases and more than 3 million deaths. Nearly 41% of people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine shot, and nearly 27% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

See the numbers in your area here. Check out where cases are rising here. See how many vaccines your state has received here. And here, compare vaccinations rates worldwide and see which countries are using which vaccines.

– Grace Hauck, USA TODAY breaking news reporter, @grace_hauck (back from reporting on the Derek Chauvin trial and happy to be returning to your inbox!)