Live News on Coronavirus: United States, Germany and United Kingdom May Start Covid Vaccines in December | World News

Britain could give regulatory approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine this week, even before the United States authorizes it, news site Telegraph reported Sunday.

Citing government sources, he said that British regulators were about to begin a formal evaluation of the vaccine, conducted by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, and that the National Health Service had been told to be ready to administer it before December 1. .

The US Food and Drug Administration said Friday it would meet on December 10 to discuss whether to authorize the vaccine.

The UK Health Department had no comment on Sunday on when the first vaccines will be given.

A spokesperson said the authorization process by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is independent from the government and will take time to review final data from Pfizer.

“A great deal of planning has been done to ensure that our healthcare service is ready to launch a COVID-19 vaccine,” the spokesperson added.

Britain formally asked its medical regulator, the MHRA, last week to assess the suitability of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Britain ordered 40 million doses and hopes to have 10 million doses, enough to protect 5 million people, available by the end of the year if regulators approve.

Spain will begin a comprehensive coronavirus vaccination program in January and expects to have covered a substantial part of the population in three months, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Sunday.

He said that Spain and Germany were the first countries in the European Union to have a complete vaccination plan.

“The campaign will start in January and will have 13,000 vaccination points,” Sánchez said at a press conference after a two-day online summit of G20 leaders.

“A very important part of the population can be vaccinated, with all guarantees, in the first quarter of the year.”

Spain will implement a single national strategy, starting with “priority groups,” Sánchez said, adding that he will present the plan to cabinet on Tuesday. He also said that more health professionals would be hired.

“We have some difficult months ahead, but the roadmap is already prepared,” said Sánchez.

Spain has the second highest count of confirmed coronavirus infections in Western Europe after France, with around 1.5 million cases and 46,619 deaths from Covid-19.

The UK government will announce on Monday that self-isolation will no longer be necessary for those who have come into contact with people who have tested positive for Covid-19, the Telegraph reported.

Contacts of those who test positive will be asked to take daily tests for seven days, and will be allowed to go about business in the meantime, the newspaper said.

The ministers will say that the current system of requiring people to stay home for 14 days will be dismantled across the country in January if the pilot programs are successful, according to the newspaper.

The head of the US Covid-19 vaccination program, Moncef Slaoui, said that the first Americans to receive a coronavirus vaccine could receive it on December 11, CNN reported Sunday.

“Our plan is to be able to send the vaccines to the vaccination sites within 24 hours of approval, so I hope that maybe the second day after approval on December 11 or 12,” he said in an interview with CNN.

Germany could start administering Covid-19 vaccine injections as early as next month, Health Minister Jens Spahn said.

“There is reason to be optimistic that there will be approval for a vaccine in Europe this year,” Spahn said in an interview with the editorial group RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland. “And then we can start right away.”

Spahn said that he had asked the federal states of Germany to have their vaccination centers ready by mid-December and that this was going well. “I would rather have a vaccination center ready a few days before an approved vaccine that is not being used right away.”

Germany has secured more than 300 million doses of vaccines through the European Commission, bilateral contracts and options, Spahn said, adding that this was more than enough and even left room to share with other countries.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.

I’ll bring you the latest coronavirus news from around the world for the next few hours.

As always, it would be great to hear from you on Twitter. @helenrsullivan.

Britain could give regulatory approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine this week, even before the United States authorizes it, news site Telegraph reported Sunday.

Citing government sources, he said that British regulators were about to begin a formal evaluation of the vaccine, conducted by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, and that the National Health Service had been told to be ready to administer it before December 1. .

Meanwhile, the United States may administer it to the first Americans by December 11, while Germany could also start administering injections of the vaccine next month, Health Minister Jens Spahn said.

More on this shortly, but in the meantime, here are the other key developments of the last few hours.

• Experts have urged Americans not to travel for Thanksgiving family gatherings this week, even though millions of people were willing to defy the advice. The United States crossed the threshold of more than 12 million cases of coronavirus. Ominous warnings were produced when Donald Trump appeared to admit that the coronavirus was “running rampant” across the United States, in contrast to his campaign-campaign statements that the virus would simply “go away” or “go away” and, more recently, that the country was “turning around” the pandemic.
• Lab-confirmed UK coronavirus cases exceed 1.5 million. The number of laboratory-confirmed UK coronavirus cases has surpassed 1.5 million after the government announced another 18,662 cases, bringing the total number of cases in the UK over the course of the pandemic to 1,512,045 , although it is widely believed. the true figure is much higher.
• The ministers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have endorsed a shared UK goal of allowing ‘some additional domestic activities limited by a smallmber of days ”during Christmas, The Cabinet Office said Sunday. However, “they reiterated the importance of allowing family and friends to gather together in a careful and limited way, while recognizing that this will not be a normal holiday period and the risks of transmission remain very real.” It was unclear how many households would be allowed to mingle over Christmas and for how many days the restrictions will be relaxed.
• The Covid-19 pandemic has created a potential “existential threat” to central London because many people may choose to work in the suburbs in the future. rather than in the heart of the capital, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Sunday.
• Rishi Sunak, the UK Chancellor, has effectively confirmed that this week’s spending review will likely include a pay freeze for many public sector workers in England. saying it was “completely reasonable” to consider wage policy in the context of the Covid-hit economy.
• A sharp rise in coronavirus infections in the Gaza Strip could overwhelm the Palestinian enclave’s meager medical system for next week, public health advisers said Sunday.
• Iran has registered 13,053 new cases of coronavirus and 475 related deaths in the last 24 hours, after stricter coronavirus restrictions went into effect in the country.