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A vaccine developed by the University of Oxford will be approved a few days before Christmas, according to senior Whitehall sources.
The Medicines and Health Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is believed to be ready to authorize the vaccines on December 28 or 29 after final data is provided to the regulator on Monday.
Football stadiums and other sites across the country will open from the first week of January, to allow for mass vaccinations on a scale never before seen in the UK, according to the Telegraph.
The UK has secured 100 million doses of the jab, four million of which are immediately available, allowing for a major expansion in the NHS vaccine program across the country.
Unlike Pfizer’s jab, the Oxford vaccine can be stored in normal refrigerators, which means it can be administered much more easily, from thousands of sites across the UK.
On the Oxford / AstraZeneca license before the end of the year, Jeremy Hunt, a former conservative health secretary, said: “It will make a big difference because the doses we have of the Pfizer vaccine will keep us active until the end of January.
“I think we won’t get another shipment until March.
“So if we can get the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine ready for use in January, then we can keep the rollout at the current rate.”
Former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Jeremy Hunt has said that the country currently only has enough doses of the Pfizer vaccine to keep running until the end of January.
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The vaccine developed is safe and has the best immune response when using a full two-dose regimen, according to new data from the trial.
Detailed new data from phase one and two clinical trials show that the vaccine stimulates a wide range of antibody and T-cell responses, and the paper states that it “strongly supports” the team’s switch to a two-dose regimen in phase three trials in progress.
Results from phase three trials published in The Lancet earlier this month had previously found that jab is 90 percent effective if given at half the dose and then at a full dose, or 62 percent effective. if given in two full doses.
However, more work is needed to affirm that result.
Last week, the NHS started the world’s first Covid-19 vaccination program, with injections given to around 140,000 seniors and health and care workers in the first seven days.
This week, the deployment has expanded much more, with around 400 general practitioner centers involved, as well as 83 hospitals.
By next week, more than 200,000 people a day should receive injections, which is equivalent to more than a million doses a week at Christmas.
Once the Oxford vaccine gets the green light, the opening of mass vaccination centers will mean this can be increased to several million doses per week, the Whitehall sources say.
It means Britain is on track to vaccinate the 20 million most vulnerable people by March, allowing for a much greater release from restrictions, with the prospect that the entire country could be vaccinated in the summer.
Although the first batch of four million doses will be delivered from the Netherlands and Germany, most of the manufacturing will take place in England, allowing for easy access.
AstraZeneca has said that another 15 million doses of active ingredients are ready and can be filled into vials in a matter of days.
The entire order of 100 million doses, in addition to the 40 million doses of Pfizer doses imported from Belgium, is enough to vaccinate the entire country. The speed of implementation means that most people 80 and older are likely to receive the Pfizer vaccine, which was licensed first.
Both types of vaccine require two doses, with a three-week interval between them for the Pfizer vaccine and a four-week interval for the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Regulators have taken longer to evaluate the AstraZeneca vaccine, due to differences in efficacy rates found in different groups, ranging from 62 to 90 percent. However, a study published this week suggests that adequate spacing between doses is the most crucial way to increase efficacy.
A spokesperson for the MHRA said: “Our ongoing review of the Oxford / AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is ongoing.
“Any vaccine must undergo robust clinical trials according to international standards, with oversight provided by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and no vaccine would be authorized to supply in the UK unless meet the expected standards of safety, quality and efficacy are met. “
