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GENEVA: The World Health Organization on Thursday (December 31) granted emergency validation to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, paving the way for countries around the world to quickly approve its import and distribution.
People queue up at an NHS Covid-19 vaccination center for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in London. Phoot: AFP
Britain launched its inoculation campaign with the American-German vaccine on December 8, and the United States, Canada and EU countries followed suit.
The WHO said the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine was the first to receive its “emergency validation” since the novel coronavirus first broke out in China a year ago.
“This is a very positive step to ensure global access to COVID-19 vaccines,” said Mariangela Simao, one of the main WHO officials in charge of ensuring access to medicines.
“But I want to emphasize the need for an even greater global effort to achieve a sufficient vaccine supply to meet the needs of priority populations everywhere,” he said in a statement.
The WHO said its emergency use list opens the way for regulators in different countries to approve the importation and distribution of the vaccine.
He said it also allows UNICEF, which plays a key logistical role in the distribution of anti-Covid vaccines, and the Pan American Health Organization, to procure the vaccine for countries that need it.
The WHO convened its own experts and those from around the world to review the data on the “safety, efficacy and quality” of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, weighing the benefits against the risks.
“The review found that the vaccine met essential criteria for safety and efficacy established by the WHO, and that the benefits of using the vaccine to address COVID-19 outweigh the potential risks,” he said.
UK approaches 1 million vaccinated as cases rise
Britain said on Thursday that it had vaccinated nearly 950,000 people, as a surge in coronavirus cases prompted the reopening of field hospitals and warnings not to party on New Year’s Eve.
According to the latest government figures, 944,539 people in the UK had received a first dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine as of Sunday.
A second approved vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford and the British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, will be administered starting next week.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the figures showed that the state-run National Health Service had “taken on this enormous task.”
He predicted that the number of vaccines “would increase rapidly in the coming months.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a New Years message underscored the “tough fight” ahead, as pressure mounts on the NHS to cope with the surge in cases.
But at the same time, he said that “as tomorrow dawns in 2021, we are certain of these vaccines.”
The positive news came as England prepared on Thursday to reopen its Nightingale field hospitals as rising cases of the new strain of coronavirus depleted beds.
The government launched a campaign for New Year’s Eve asking people to avoid socializing. “Act like you have it,” it said.
A leaked email sent to staff at the Royal London Hospital, one of the capital’s leading hospitals, and published by ITV News, said that “we are now in disaster medicine mode.”
The hospital “no longer provided high-level intensive care because we cannot,” he added.
‘Reactivated and ready’
An NHS spokesman said Nightingale’s temporary facility in England “is preparing to admit patients once more should they be needed.”
He said that “in anticipation of the pressures arising from the spread of the new variant of infection,” authorities called on the NHS to ensure that London’s Nightingale hospital was “reactivated and ready to admit patients as needed, and that process is underway. “
The hospital is located in a convention center in East London.
Seven Nightingale hospitals were opened with fanfare across England during the first wave of the virus at an estimated cost of £ 220 million, to provide additional beds for coronavirus patients.
Named after one of the pioneers of nursing, Florence Nightingale, some are found in exhibition centers. Other parts of the UK built similar facilities.
Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Times Radio that the military, which helped build them, “stands ready” to help hospital staff if the NHS runs out of critical care beds.
The Daily Telegraph reported Monday that London Nightingale Hospital had no patients and had been stripped of beds and ventilators, while temporary hospitals in two other cities were empty.
According to the latest government data, the UK had 23,813 hospitalized virus patients as of Monday.
The UK registered 55,892 new cases on Thursday, more than 12,000 of which were in London.
The number of people who tested positive in the UK in the past seven days increased 24 per cent compared to the previous week.
NHS England said there were 22,728 beds occupied by confirmed cases in England on Thursday.
Three-quarters of the population of England are currently under the most severe antivirus restrictions and are ordered to stay home except for essential travel.
The UK has recorded 2.4 million virus cases and 73,512 deaths.
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