Health

Roundup: Germany welcomes Pfizer news, Ukraine president positive for Covid

Madrid Desk, Nov 9 (efe-epa).- Germany’s government on Monday said it hopes the promising Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will be approved in Europe as well as the United States.

Elsewhere in Europe, Ukraine’s president — a former comic actor — tested positive for Covid-19, Hungary goes back into lockdown and Portugal’s health system comes under the strain of a second wave.

GERMANY

The German government on Monday welcomed the news that a Covid-19 vaccine candidate being developed by American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German company BioNTech had shown 90% efficacy in interim analysis and said it was confident the immunization would be approved for general use in Europe as well as the United States.

Health minister Jens Spahn said the progress made was “very encouraging.”

Pfizer and BioNTech said it would apply for emergency approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in the third week of November, meaning the first vaccines could be put to use before the end of the year.

The news was greeted positively around the world as it moves research one step closer to offering a pathway out of the pandemic.

BioNTech and Pfizer said they hoped to produce 50 million doses of the vaccine this year and 1.3 billion in 2021.

UKRAINE

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said he had tested positive for Covid-19 and would go into self-isolation.

Related Articles

Back to top button