Photographer: Owen Humphreys / PA Wire / Bloomberg
Photographer: Owen Humphreys / PA Wire / Bloomberg
UK blockades could be eased in late February as an imminent approval of a Covid-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca Plc will allow the vaccination of up to 15 million of the most vulnerable people in the country, Mail reported Sunday.
The country’s health service would no longer be at risk of being overwhelmed by virus cases once this threshold is reached, the newspaper said. The vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca will be approved shortly and will be launched in the UK starting January 4, Sunday Telegraph reported.
The United Kingdom became the first country in Western Europe to start vaccinations when it began started using Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE shot on December 8th. More than 600,000 people were vaccinated by December 20. The government hopes that 2 million people will receive a first dose of one of the vaccines within two weeks of the January launch of the new photo, the Telegraph said.
The country was one of the most affected in Europe, with over 70,000 deaths, the largest in the region after Italy. Much of the UK has been moved into the harshest Level 4 restrictions, which ban household mixing and have forced the closure of pubs, restaurants and numerous companies after a more contagious strain of the virus was discovered earlier this month.
Read more: Why the Coronavirus moved from the UK worries: QuickTake
The Sun newspaper reported that regulators will approve the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine as early as December 28th. Medicines and Health The product regulatory agency will need time to review the vaccine data, a health department spokesman said via email, without indicating when a decision will be made.
Read more: EU begins coordinated launch of vaccine after Pfizer photo is removed
The AstraZeneca vaccine is easier to store and handle than the Pfizer vaccine, helping efforts to reach people in remote parts of the country. Approval was slowed by discrepancies in the efficacy rates produced in the studies. AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot told Sunday Times that new data will show that the vaccine has reached the 95% efficacy rate reported by Pfizer.
“We think we have discovered the winning formula and how to get the effectiveness that, after two doses, is up there with everyone else,” he told the newspaper. “I can’t tell you more because we’ll publish at some point.”
The Telegraph also reported that mass vaccination centers on sports stadiums and conference venues are expected to begin in the second week of January. The newspaper said government officials would hold a meeting on the pandemic Monday after scientists warned that school closures could be needed to slow the spread of the new Covid-19 variant.
The rate at which the virus grows, known as the R number, is estimated at 1.1 to 1.3 as of December 24, according to the latest government data. A reading above 1.0 indicates the spread of the virus is accelerating. The UK reported another 34,693 cases and 210 deaths on 26 December.
(Updates with comments from the CEO of AstraZeneca from the sixth paragraph)