US, EU Push Forward COVID-19 Vaccine Approval

The United States (US) and the European Union (EU) pushed forward COVID-19 vaccine approval.

The United States (US) and the European Union (EU) on Tuesday pushed forward the approval of two leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates.

This, as fears grew of a fresh wave of coronavirus infections over Christmas.

US EU vaccine approval
Photo source: ABS-CBN News

Two leading British medical journals encouraged London to scrap plans easing restrictions for the holiday season and the Netherlands implemented its tightest lockdown since the coronavirus pandemic emerged.

Health professionals had registered more than 1.6 million lives lost and over 72 million cases of COVID-19 since it emerged in China last December 2019.

The US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) on Tuesday issued an upbeat briefing about the COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna ahead of a meeting by experts on whether to grant it emergency approval.

READ ALSO: US President-elect Joe Biden To Receive COVID-19 Vaccination Publicly ‘Sooner Than Later’

In addition, the US Food and Drug Administration said that there were no specific safety concerns identified that will preclude an issuance of an emergency use authorization (EUA) and confirmed an overall efficacy of 94.1%.

Its assessment came a day after a mass COVID-19 vaccination drive began in the United States.

The US Food and Drug Administration also authorized the country’s first rapid at-home test for coronavirus disease, which was available over-the-counter and produced a result in around 20 minutes.

READ ALSO: Nurse In New York Becomes First Person To Receive COVID-19 Vaccine In US

However, three million of the kits made by California-based Ellume would be available in January 2021.

According to German Health Minister Jens Spahn, Berlin wanted the European Union to approve the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech “before Christmas” as calls grew for the bloc’s health regulator in order to speed up its decision process.

The EU lagged behind a growing number of nations that had already granted an emergency approval.

UK, Canada, and the United States had already began vaccinating their citizens.

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