Photo by Scott McCloskey Linda Shelek, a nurse practitioner, administers a COVID-19 vaccine during a clinic at the Ohio County Health Department’s vaccine site at The Highlands in Ohio County.

Following a two-week pause in use, West Virginia will resume using the Johnson & Johnson version of the COVID-19 vaccine as part of its arsenal against the virus, Gov. Jim Justice announced at his Monday briefing.

Use of the J&J vaccine was put on hold nationwide on recommendation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The pause came so officials could study the possibility the vaccine could lead to rare blood clots. Six women developed those clots after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and one died.

James Hoyer, who leads the state’s Joint Interagency Task Force for COVID-19 vaccines, said that, for anyone still hesitant to get vaccinated because of J&J issues, alternate versions are plentiful.

“Based on the availability of vaccines across the state, if someone does not want the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Pfizer and Moderna doses are available,” he said. “If someone has a particular concern about Johnson & Johnson, there are plenty of other doses available across the state of West Virginia.”

The number of West Virginia residents with at least one dose of vaccine eclipsed the 700,000 mark on Monday, according to the Department of Health and Human Resources website. There are now 700,260 in the state with at least one dose in their arms and 558,785 that are fully vaccinated.

The Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department reported five new positive COVID-19 cases in its Monday night update, bringing the county’s totals to 4,288 cases and 84 related deaths. The Marshall County Health Department reported 11 new confirmed positive and three new probable cases in its Monday night update.

The department is sending people to the DHHR website for its latest totals, which were 2,443 confirmed cases, 884 probable cases and 77 related deaths as of Monday morning.

Hancock, Brooke and Ohio counties all were green, the safest category on the DHHR COVID-19 alert map Monday, while Marshall County was yellow, the second-safest category.

In Ohio, the Belmont County Health Department reported Monday that there have been 6,034 positive cases and 116 related deaths since the pandemic began.