Top U.S. health official says third COVID-19 vaccine could come next month

FILE PHOTO: Mary Lou Galushko gives Jeanne Peters, 95, a rehab patient at The Reservoir, a nursing facility, the first coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination at the nursing home, in West Hartford, Connecticut, U.S., December 18, 2020. Stephen Dunn/Pool via REUTERS

A third vaccine to stave off COVID-19 could get U.S. approval as early as next month, a top U.S. health official said on Sunday as the second vaccine began shipping out nationwide..

Admiral Brett Giroir, an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, told ABC News that data was yet to be released on the novel coronavirus vaccine from Johnson & Johnson and Janssen, but that if approved it would give the United States its third vaccine following ones from Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Daniel Wallis)