NEW YORK, Oct 13 — Johnson & Johnson said yesterday it has temporarily paused its Covid-19 vaccine candidate clinical trials due to an unexplained illness in a study participant.

The participant's illness is being reviewed and evaluated by an independent data and safety monitoring board as well as the company's clinical and safety physicians, it said in a statement.

Stat News reported the pause earlier in the day citing a document sent to outside researchers running the 60,000-patient clinical trial, which stated that a "pausing rule" had been met, the online system used to enroll patients in the study had been closed and the data and safety monitoring board would be convened. — Reuters