UK Approves Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine, First In The World

The United Kingdom has accepted Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine for mass usage, a government spokesperson said in a statement.

“The Government has today accepted the recommendation from the Independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for use. This follows months of rigorous clinical trials and a thorough analysis of the data by experts at the MHRA who have concluded that the vaccine has met its strict standards of safety, quality, and effectiveness,” a press release showed.

The Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) will shortly publish its final advice for the priority groups to receive the vaccine, including care home residents, health and care staff, the elderly, and the clinically extremely vulnerable.

The vaccine will be made available across the UK from next week. The NHS has decades of experience in delivering large scale vaccination programmes and will begin putting their extensive preparations into action to provide care and support to all those eligible for vaccination, it added.

To aid the success of the vaccination programme it is vital everyone continues to play their part and abide by the necessary restrictions in their area so we can further suppress the virus and allow the NHS to do its work without being overwhelmed.

Further details will be set out shortly, the press release informed.

The UK is one of the worst-affected countries from the Covid-19 in Europe with more than 1.6 million cases of the novel coronavirus having been recorded since the pandemic began in late 2019.

More than 59,000 people have died with the virus, according to official figures.

The vaccine is developed by the US-based firm Pfizer in partnership with Germany-based BioNTEch. Scientists Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci were the brains behind the vaccine.