Ordered 100 million additional doses of Moderna vaccine.

The United States allows the use of the "Pfizer - Biontech" vaccine to prevent "Corona"

Training on using Corona vaccines at a hospital in Indiana, in the United States.

Reuters

The United States has given approval to use the vaccine, which is produced by the American company "Pfizer" and the German "Biontech", to prevent infection with the emerging corona virus (Covid-19), paving the way for the start of a large-scale vaccination campaign throughout the country.

Thus, the United States becomes the sixth country to give its approval for this vaccine, after Britain, Canada, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.

The outgoing US President Donald Trump welcomed this news in a short video clip on Twitter, saying: “Our country has achieved a medical miracle, and we have already started sending the vaccine to all states of the country.”

He explained that state governors will decide where the vaccines should go in their states, and who will receive them first.

He continued, "We want our older citizens, caregivers and first aid to be the first to receive it."

Trump, who has focused all his strategy to combat the epidemic on rapidly developing a vaccine, has expressed impatience with the US Food and Drug Administration.

He wrote in a tweet: "Get this vaccine down now."

The "Washington Post" newspaper reported that the White House had ordered the Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, Stephen Hahn, to authorize the "Pfizer - Biontech" vaccine or to resign.

But the commissioner objected to the newspaper's report, saying that an advisory committee voted by 17 votes to 4, and one abstention, that the benefits of the Pfizer vaccine, which it is developing with Biontech, outweigh any risks.

For his part, the CEO of the German company Biontech, Ugur Shaheen, said in an interview with Reuters, that the biggest challenge facing his company and its partner Pfizer, now that their vaccine has been approved in the United States, will be to increase manufacturing to meet the huge demand.

He added, "We have to solve the problem of manufacturing. It is very clear that more doses are needed, and we are addressing this issue, which is how to produce more doses."

Shaheen confirmed that he expects the companies to obtain conditional approval from the European Medicines Agency, by the end of the month, and may start launching a vaccine in European countries early next year.

One of the ways Shaheen hopes to increase supply is by bringing forward the date for the Biontech plant, which has a capacity of 750 million doses per year, which was purchased from Novartis in Marburg, Germany.

So that it will start making the vaccine there in the first half of 2021, and the company will work to operate it, according to an expeditious schedule.

He continued, "We are working on an expanded plan. I cannot inform you at the present time of what is possible, and how much we can expand, but we will try to do that in a big way."

The two companies had confirmed, earlier, that they would produce up to 1.3 billion doses of the vaccine, next year.

In a related context, Moderna said that the US government will obtain an additional 100 million doses of the company's vaccine against the emerging corona virus (Covid-19), and it is expected to deliver them in the second quarter of 2021, if approved.

The company that developed the vaccine confirmed that the US government has requested, in total, 200 million doses so far.

She added that about 20 million doses will be delivered in the first order by the end of December, and the rest in the first quarter of 2021.

Last August, the United States concluded an agreement with Moderna to obtain 100 million doses of the "Covid-19" vaccine, possibly at a price of $ 1.5 billion, with an option to secure 400 million additional doses.

A committee of external advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to hold a meeting, on December 17th, to discuss Moderna's request to obtain permission for the emergency use of the vaccine.

On the other hand, China imposed a closure in the northern city of the country, and launched a large-scale testing campaign in another city, both of which are close to the Russian border, after a new infection with the Corona virus was detected in each of them.

In Dongning, a 40-year-old man working in the port was injured, while in Suifenhe, a 39-year-old worker in a commercial area for import and export was injured, the authorities said.

The new Corona virus has caused the death of one million 595 thousand and 276 people in the world, since the outbreak of the epidemic at the end of last year, according to a census conducted by Agence France-Presse, according to official sources.

More than 71 million 41 thousand and 350 people have been infected with the virus in the world, of whom 44 million and 731 thousand have recovered, at least until yesterday.

Yesterday, 12,326 deaths, and 702077 new injuries, were recorded in the world.

And the countries that recorded the highest number of new deaths are: the United States (2599), Italy (761), and Mexico (693).

And the United States is the country most affected by the epidemic, as it recorded 295,539 deaths, out of 15851735 injuries, according to the Johns Hopkins University census.

At least 6,135,314 people have recovered.

After the United States, the most affected countries are Brazil, where 180,437 deaths and 6836,227 injuries were recorded, India with 142,628 deaths (9826775 injuries), Mexico with 113019 deaths (1229,379 injuries), and Britain with 63,506 deaths (1809,455 injuries).

China imposes a lockdown in a city in the north of the country, and launches a massive inspection campaign in a second city.

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Death, and 702,000 cases of the "virus" worldwide, within 24 hours.

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