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UK regulators approve use of 3rd vaccine against coronavirus

Published:Friday | January 8, 2021 | 9:44 AM
A woman wearing a face mask walks across Westminster Bridge past the Houses of Parliament in London, Friday, January 8, 2021. Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered a new national lockdown for England which means people will only be able to leave their homes for limited reasons, with measures expected to stay in place until mid-February. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

LONDON (AP) — Britain has authorised a coronavirus vaccine developed by Moderna, the third to be licensed for use in the country as it ramps up a vaccination program critical to lifting the United Kingdom out of the pandemic.

The Department of Health said Friday that the vaccine meets the regulator’s “strict standards of safety, efficacy, and quality.”

Britain has now ordered a total of 17 million doses that will have been delivered by the spring.

“Vaccines are the key to releasing us all from the grip of this pandemic, and today’s news is yet another important step towards ending lockdown and returning to normal life,” Business Secretary Alok Sharma said.

So far, Britain has inoculated 1.5 million people with the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccines.

It plans to vaccinate some 15 million people by mid-February.

The authorisation comes as the need for such help grows ever greater. London Mayor Sadiq Khan declared a “major incident,″ as the rapid spread of the virus threatens to overwhelm the capital’s hospitals, with cases now exceeding 1,000 per 100,000.

Other emergency services are also under strain, with hundreds of firefighters now driving ambulances, for example.

“Our heroic doctors, nurses and NHS staff are doing an amazing job, but with cases rising so rapidly, our hospitals are at risk of being overwhelmed,″ Khan said.

“The stark reality is that we will run out of beds for patients in the next couple of weeks unless the spread of the virus slows down drastically.″

The UK is recording virus-related deaths on a par with some of the worst days early in the pandemic.

On Thursday, government figures showed that another 1,162 people were reported to have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus.

The UK’s total virus-related death toll is now 78,508.

According to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the UK has the most COVID-related deaths in Europe and the fifth-highest number in the world.

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