A "turning point" in the fight against the virus in Europe.

The United Kingdom becomes, Monday, January 4, the first country to administer to its population the vaccine from the British laboratory AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford against Covid-19, while considering a new severe turn of the screw to slow down the worsening of the pandemic.

AstraZeneca-Oxford's vaccine is less expensive, easier to store and therefore more suitable for a large-scale immunization campaign than those of its competitors Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, already approved and distributed in several countries, including states. -United.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has already been injected to more than one million people in the United Kingdom since the launch of the vaccination campaign in early December.

British authorities have ordered 100 million doses of AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, 520,000 of which are ready on Monday, according to the Department of Health.

In England, hundreds of new vaccination centers are due to open this week, in addition to the 730 already in place.

A vaccine authorized in India and Argentina

"I am delighted today to launch the Oxford vaccine, inherited from British science," Health Minister Matt Hancock said in a statement Monday.

"This is a turning point in our fight against this horrible virus and I hope it will give everyone hope that the end of this pandemic is in sight."

The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine was also authorized by Argentina and, on Sunday, by India, which will allow this country of 1.3 billion inhabitants to start one of the most massive vaccination campaigns in the world .

India, where Covid-19 has killed more than 150,000 people, wants to immunize up to 300 million people by mid-2021.

The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine has the advantage of being inexpensive (around 2.50 euros per dose).

It can also be stored at refrigerator temperature, unlike Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines which can only be stored long term at very low temperatures (-20 ° C for the first, -70 ° C for the second).

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What you should know about AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine

However, its authorization within the European Union should not take place in January, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

The United States, meanwhile, has no plans to approve it until April.

Towards new restrictions in the UK?

With more than 75,000 dead, the United Kingdom is one of the countries in Europe most bereaved by Covid-19.

Nearly 55,000 additional people have tested positive for the virus in 24 hours, exceeding the threshold of 50,000 for the sixth consecutive day, according to the latest official data released on Sunday.

The rapid expansion of the epidemic, attributed to a new variant of the virus, has prompted British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to consider tighter restrictions.

"We may have to do things in the coming weeks which will be more difficult in several parts of the country," the head of government told the BBC on Sunday.

He added that closing schools, a measure taken in late March during the first wave of the pandemic, "is one of those things."

With AFP

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