Oxford vaccine ‘scheduled to be approved just days before Christmas’

Oxford University’s Covid vaccine will be approved just after Christmas, in time to vaccinate millions in January.

Whitehall sources told the Telegraph that final data on the vaccine will be delivered to the Medicines and Health Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on Monday and it is expected to be deemed safe on December 28 or 29.

Once the dose is authorized, soccer stadiums across the country will open in the first week of the New Year to help vaccinate the country.

But the good news is overshadowed by London and parts of south-east England that are under lockdown and Christmas bubble plans are drastically reduced in the rest of the country.

The president of the Royal College of GPs, Professor Martin Marshall, said that if the Oxford jab is approved, the membership body will accelerate the implementation of the vaccines in nursing homes.

He told BBC Radio 4 Today: ‘Right now we are dealing with this Pfizer vaccine, which is difficult.

‘Assuming we’re going to get approval for the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is a lot more familiar because it looks a lot more like the flu vaccine, then I think we will be able to roll it out at a much faster rate, but certainly over time. For the next few weeks and months we hope that all residences are covered ”.

The MHRA said: ‘Our process for approving vaccines is designed to ensure that any licensed Covid-19 vaccine meets the expected high standards of safety, quality and efficacy.

‘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. ‘

Last week the UK started vaccinating older people and healthcare workers with Pfizer’s jab, which has already been approved.

Approximately 140,000 people received their doses in the first seven days of the program, and since then about 400 general medicine centers and 83 hospitals have begun to help with implementation.

The Telegraph understands that more than 500,000 people will receive the vaccine by the end of this weekend and more than 200,000 people a day will receive the vaccine next week, increasing distribution to more than a million weekly doses by Christmas.

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