The United Kingdom is the first in the world to approve Pfizer and BioNtech’s corona vaccine for use. The first vaccinations will probably follow next week.
–
The UK medicines agency, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), confirmed on Wednesday that the UK has approved Pfizer and BioNTech’s corona vaccine. The vaccine will be available across the UK from next week.
The first vaccinations can start within days for people in risk groups. For this have the British experts drawn up a preliminary list of priorities targeting people most at risk. At the top are residents and staff of residential care centers followed by people over 80 and other health workers. “We give priority to the elderly, people in residential care centers and their carers,” said British Health Minister Matt Hancock. Hancock also says large centers are now being set up where the vaccinations can take place.
The UK has ordered 40 million doses, enough to vaccinate some 20 million people, as two shots of the Pfizer vaccine are required.
About 10 million doses should be available as soon as possible to start vaccinating in the coming days.
The vaccine should be stored at a temperature of -70 degrees Celsius, although it can be stored for a few days at 2 to 8 degrees
Other candidate vaccines on the way
The American pharmaceutical company Moderna has last Monday submitted his corona vaccine candidate for approval to the US and European authorities. The moderna vaccine is 94.1 percent effective in preventing infection with covid-19.
The European Commission has already reached an agreement with the companies in recent weeks the pricing and recently our country decided that the vaccine will be made available to everyone free of charge. There is therefore no longer any question of a reimbursement, so that both classic intermediate steps now disappear.
In Belgium, the vaccination against the coronavirus can only start after New Year. The European Medicines Agency will give its decision on a first conditional authorization for a vaccine against covid-19 by December 29. Shortly afterwards a second vaccine will be given.
– .
