Britain expects to start rolling out the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine just before Christmas if it is declared safe and effective, said health minister Matt Hancock on Monday.
“We’re working very closely with the company,” he told BBC TV. “We’ll be ready to roll it out as soon as it comes. We’ll be ready from the first of December…, but more likely is that we may be able to start rolling it out before Christmas.”
He said it depends on how effective the vaccines are at preventing transmission.
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Earlier this week, Pfizer said its experimental COVID-19 vaccine was over 90% effective and the result was based on initial trials.
Britain expects to have 10 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech’s candidate COVID-19 vaccine available by the end of the year.
40 million doses of the candidate vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech has been ordered by Britain, which is enough to give protection to a third of the population.
However, six supply deals has been signed by the British government for vaccine candidates, including Pfizer/BioNTech’s and one developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.
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Drugmakers including Pfizer Inc. are expecting to obtain more trial data as early as this week and fresh Covid-19 vaccine reports are also on the horizon.
More data from vaccine creator Moderna Inc. is expected in the coming days, while AstraZeneca and its partner, the University of Oxford, may also have preliminary results in the next few weeks.