Health

Roundup: UK regulators to assess Oxford vaccine, German cases pass 1 million

Madrid Desk, 27 Nov (efe-epa) – The UK government has asked a regulatory body to evaluate the latest findings at the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine while Germany inched past one million cases of Covid-19 since the pandemic began.

UNITED KINGDOM

The UK government has formally requested the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to evaluate the Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Oxford University and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

The request marks a significant first step towards obtaining approval of the vaccine for distribution, provided it meets the required standards of safety, efficacy and quality, explained the Department of Health and Social Care on Friday.

Health minister Matt Hancock said: “We have formally asked the regulator to assess the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, to understand the data and determine whether it meets rigorous safety standards. This letter is an important step towards deploying a vaccine as quickly as safely possible.”

The news comes after the research team behind the vaccine had to defend the product following growing doubts about the preliminary results of its phase three clinical trial.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s conservative government also requested an evaluation of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BionNTech last week.

GERMANY

Germany surpassed on Friday one million recorded Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic. The number of confirmed cases now stands at 1,006,394 and 15,586 deaths.

The country also recorded a record number of 426 deaths in the last 24 hours.

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