UK approves AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine

The UK has recently approved its AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine developed in conjunction with Oxford University. This makes it the first country to have licensed this cheaper vaccine.

The British Government's Health Department confirmed on Wednesday that the Government has given the go-ahead to the recommendation of the UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve the vaccine.

The UK was the first country to carry out vaccination campaigns against COVID-19 using the Pfizer-BioNTech drug. It was brought forward by one month to European Union countries and the United States, who approved it this past month.

The AstraZeneca vaccine will be distributed starting tomorrow and the injection of the double dose will begin on January 4th, thus joining the already initiated Pfizer campaign. It can take up to 3 weeks for the first and second dose to be given, with priority given to those at high risk.

"This is a significant moment in the fight against the pandemic because the vaccine is the way out," said the British Health Minister, Matt Hancock, live on the BBC, "so this is good news for everyone."

He said in a statement that the decision had been taken after rigorous trials and in-depth analysis of the data by MHRA experts, who had concluded that the vaccine met their strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness.

It also adds that the Joint Committee on Immunisation and Vaccines (JCVI) will publish recommendations on priority groups for injection. He said the National Health Service "has a clear vaccination plan and decades of experience with large-scale vaccination programmes."

Trials have shown that this vaccine is 70% effective in protecting against COVID-19 and its price of £3 makes it cheaper than other vaccines already being distributed such as the US-based Pfizer along with BioNTech.

It is easier to distribute compared to the above mentioned as it does not need to be maintained at -70ºC. The British government has ordered a sufficient quantity to vaccinate 50 million people. AstraZena expects to produce 3 billion doses by 2021.