The United Kingdom (UK) has approved the COVID-19 vaccine designed by scientists at the University of Oxford.
The approval, by the medicines regulator, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA), means the vaccine is both safe and effective.
The approval comes weeks after the country approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was designed in the first months of 2020, tested on the first volunteer in April. It has since been through large-scale clinical trials involving thousands of people.
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The vaccine is expected to lead to a significant increase in vaccination as it is cheap and easy to mass produce.
Also, it can be stored in a standard fridge, unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine which needs ultra cold storage at -70C.
The UK has ordered 100 million doses from the manufacturer AstraZeneca, enough to vaccinate 50 million people.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the rollout will start on January 4, 2021, “and will really accelerate into the first few weeks of next year”.
The vaccine’s effectiveness ranges from one to three figures: 62%, 70% and 90%.
The first analysis of the trial data showed 70% of people were protected from developing COVID-19 and nobody developed severe disease or needed hospital treatment.
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The figure was just 62% when people were given two full doses of the jab and 90% when they were first given a half dose and then a full one.
The British regulator has approved two full doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
British pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, said its vaccine would be made available to some of the poorest regions of the world at a low cost and not being manufactured for profit.
Its chief executive, Pascal Soriot, said: “Today is an important day for millions of people in the UK who will get access to this new vaccine. It has been shown to be effective, well-tolerated, simple to administer and is supplied by AstraZeneca at no profit.”
© ControlTV 2020.
