The Regulatory Authority for Medicines and Medical Products in Britain has approved the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine against the Coronavirus, making Britain the first country to authorize treatment with it.
The British government requested 100 million doses of the vaccine to vaccinate 50 million people, and said it accepted the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency's recommendation to grant emergency approval.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is the second anti-corona virus vaccine authorized by the authority after the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine.
The vaccine is expected to give a great impetus to vaccination campaigns due to its low cost, ease of production and preservation.
For his part, British Health Minister Matt Hancock said that the vaccine is effective against the new strain of Corona, but indicated that his country will tighten restrictions in more areas today, Wednesday.
The minister added, "I am very confident now, after approval this morning, that by spring, we will be able to vaccinate a sufficient number of people at risk of infection, which we consider a way out for us from this pandemic."
He said hundreds of thousands of doses would be available in Britain next week.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the approval of the vaccine as "a victory for the British flag".
However, this approval of the vaccine does not end questions about his trial data, which make it unlikely that the European Union or the United States would approve it so quickly.
The Oxford vaccine experiments showed that it is less effective than the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine, but it can be stored and transported in normal cold temperatures and not in the extreme cold of minus 70 degrees Celsius, which is important for countries that have less advanced health infrastructure.