The UK may already approve the coronavirus vaccine developed by pharmaceutical company Pfizer as early as next week, the Daily Telegraph reported Sunday evening.
The aim is to begin vaccination against Covid-19 as soon as possible across the Channel. The start would then be even quicker than in the United States, where the date of 10 December has been brought forward.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, meanwhile, announced that over 2 million people in Belgium will be on the priority list for vaccination, cautioning that “it is not because the first doses are set to arrive by the end of the month of December that everyone will be vaccinated in the coming months.”
Germany and Spain also plan to authorise the first coronavirus vaccines in December. Both countries are the first in the European Union to present a complete vaccination plan, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said. Sanchez promised that a “very substantial” part of Spain’s population would be vaccinated by the end of the first half of 2021.
In the European Union, there is talk of approving both the BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, after mid-December, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday. Both vaccines have yielded promising results, with the former showing 95% and the latter showing 94.5% efficiency.
The G20 leaders for their part promised on Sunday to stop at nothing to ensure fair access to vaccines against Covid-19, according to a draft of the summit's final declaration.
The coronavirus pandemic has hit hard around the world, with 57,882,183 confirmed cases and 1,377,395 deaths, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). With 16,873,383 cases, Europe is the second-most affected WHO region after the Americas.
Jason Spinks
The Brussels Times
