Approval for Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine; COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed in UK from next week

LONDON: The UK became the first country to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for public use. According to company sources, the vaccine will be available to the public from next week.

The vaccine, which claims to be up to 95% effective against the Novel Coronavirus, has been approved for public use by the Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

The UK has already ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine, capable of vaccinating 20 million people at a dose of two doses per person. Ten million doses are expected to be available soon.

The vaccine was developed over a period of ten months by the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and the German company BioNTech SE.

The company claims that the vaccine has been successfully tested in people of different ages and regions, and that no major side effects have been reported.