Covid vaccine to be available 'from next week'

The first 800,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine will be available in the UK from next week, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.

He added that people should wait to be contacted by the NHS.

According to the BBC, elderly people in care homes and care home staff have been placed on the top priority list, followed by over-80s and health and care staff.

As hospitals already have the facilities to store the vaccine at the required temperature of -70C, it is expected that the first vaccinations are likely to take place there.

Last month, we reported that the first effective coronavirus vaccine had been developed by American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German technology company BioNTech.

The revolutionary new RNA vaccine technology, which had been tested on 43,500 people in six countries at the time and so far has no safety concerns, is around 95% effective, trials have shown.

It is the fastest vaccine to ever have been trialled, taking just 10 months rather than the 10 years it usually takes.

The UK has ordered 40 million doses - enough for 20 million people - and Matt Hancock said that it is likely to reach ‘several million' throughout December.

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• Topics
• Regulation
• BioNTech
• December
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• Matt Hancock
• Coronavirus
• Vaccine
• Pfizer