Washington, Dec 15 (AFP/APP): The United States and the European Union on Tuesday pushed forward approval of two leading Covid-19 candidate vaccines, as fears grew of a fresh wave of infections over Christmas.
Two leading British medical journals meanwhile urged London to scrap plans easing restrictions for the holiday season and the Netherlands imposed its tightest lockdown since the pandemic emerged. The novel coronavirus has claimed over 1.6 million lives and more than 72 million cases have been registered since it emerged in China last December.
The US Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday issued an upbeat briefing document about the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine ahead of a meeting by experts on whether to grant it emergency approval. The FDA said there were “no specific safety concerns identified that would preclude the issuance of a EUA (emergency use authorization)” and confirmed an overall efficacy of 94.1 percent.
The upbeat assessment came a day after a mass vaccination drive in the United States, the world’s worst-affected country. German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Berlin wanted the EU to approve the BioNTech/Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine “before Christmas” as calls grew for the bloc’s health regulator to speed up its decision process.
The Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency (EMA) had previously planned to hold a special meeting by December 29 to discuss granting conditional approval for the jab but on Tuesday said it would be brought forward to December 21.
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