This will be a landmark week for global fight against coronavirus. The UK is all set to administer Pfizer Inc.’s covid vaccine while there are expectations that the US regulator could approve the vaccine for emergency use as early as Thursday. Earlier this month, UK had authorised Pfizer's covid-19 on independent advice of medicines regulator. In India, according to Press Trust of India, Serum Institute of India has sought emergency use authorization for covid vaccine.
Here are five latest developments:
1) In the UK, the first doses of Pfizer covid vaccine are set to be administered on Tuesday, with the NHS giving top priority to vaccinating the over-80s, frontline healthcare workers and care home staff and residents.
2) The UK government said that the Pfizer shot will be initially available at hospitals before getting distributed to doctors' clinics.
3) In the US, the Food and Drug Administration is due to decide as early as Thursday on emergency authorization for a shot developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE. Moncef Slaoui, the head of the government’s program to accelerate a vaccine, expressed confidence that the FDA would clear the way.
4) Top US officials have said that the US will start vaccination within 24 hours of FDA approval. All Americans who want to get a Covid-19 vaccine should be able to do so by the second quarter of next year, Health and Human Services Alex Azar said over the weekend.
5) In India, Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine producer by volume, has sought emergency use authorization in the country for Oxford covid vaccine, Press Trust of India reported. The move comes close on the heels of Pfizer Inc applying for a similar authorization of its coronavirus vaccine in India on Saturday.
Continuing with the trend of the last 10 days, India reported more daily recoveries than the daily new cases during the past 24 hours. The trend of more daily recoveries than the daily cases has led to a continuous contraction of India’s active caseload to below 4 lakh.
