BNT162b2

After days of pressuring the European Union's medical regulator, Germany's health minister said Tuesday that he has received assurances that the European Medicines Agency will approve a coronavirus vaccine by December 23.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is aiming to approve the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech on December 23, German newspaper Bild reported on Tuesday, citing government and European Commission sources.

When the vaccination will start, whether at the beginning of next year, depends on the experts and their assessments, Vui said and added that it could happen in January.
"We will have two vaccines, and I hope three," said Vucic, adding that it would show that Serbia is among the countries that behaved best during the epidemic.

Ljubljana – Slovenia has been promised to get some 5,000 doses of anti-coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, Health Minister Tomaž Gantar told MPs in questions time in parliament on Monday. This is the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which is expected to be green-lighted by the European Medicines Agency on 29 December.

Europe's drug regulator is under increasing pressure to quickly approve the Covid-19 vaccine developed by US giant Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech, officials said, as inoculations get started in Britain and the United States.

The push underscores the frictions between regulators and governments wishing to curb the pandemic that has killed more than 1.6 million people worldwide.

The United States prepared to start its COVID-19 vaccination program on Dec. 14 as the nation's death toll edged towards 300,000, while Germany announced a partial lockdown over the holidays due to an explosion of cases.

The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine will reach hospitals and other sites across the United States by Dec. 14 morning, a top official said Saturday, ready to be injected into the arms of millions of the most vulnerable Americans as the world's death toll approached 1.6 million.

U.S. experts voted on Dec. 10 to recommend granting emergency approval for Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine, paving the way for America to become the next country to move ahead with mass immunization.

It comes as the worst-hit country in the world logged nearly 6,000 virus deaths in 48 hours and its overall toll was approaching 300,000.

Britain on Dec. 8 became the first Western country to start mass coronavirus vaccinations, as Joe Biden pledged his administration would inoculate 100 million people in the United States over the first 100 days of his presidency.

Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old grandmother, on Tuesday became the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer NSE -0.33 % COVID-19 vaccine shot outside of a trial as Britain began vaccinating its population.
Great Britain is the first Western country to start vaccinating its general population today.