AstraZeneca says its Covid-19 vaccine effective against UK strain

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• AstraZeneca head executive, Pascal Soriot,  says the company’s COVID-19 vaccine has an efficacy rate of 95%, comparable to the other top brands which also developed the shots.
• Soriot explained, though, that they need to be sure of its capability in fighting the new coronavirus strain in the UK by conducting further tests.
• British regulators are yet to approve AstraZeneca’s vaccine within the week, and the shots are expected to be distributed by early January. 

The United Kingdom is set to give authority to a coronavirus vaccine that drug producers say is effective against the new strain of the infection spreading worldwide.

Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, told the Sunday Times that experts agree that its candidate vaccine’s efficacy rate is also 95 percent, similar to the ones promoted by rival drugmakers. There are concerns, though, over the initial partial test outcomes that indicated the AstraZeneca dose is only around 70 percent effective against the coronavirus.

The new injection from Oxford University developed AstraZeneca is uncomplicated to store and transfer, potentially providing the nation another potent tool to combat its rising infection rates, three weeks following the first batch of shots in the UK, which was also the earliest all over the world.

British drug authorities may authorize the vaccine within this week, making it potentially available for the public by early next month.

Soriot also told the outlet that the company might have discovered the answer with an efficacy rate on the two doses, which is comparable with the other leading brands.

The AstraZeneca chief also noted that the vaccine should still be effective against the new COVID-19 strain in the UK while explaining that they would also conduct tests to be certain.

Medical facilities in the UK continue to be at overcapacity as the nation’s cases surpassed 30,000 and 316 COVID-19 casualties on Sunday, bringing the total death count to 70,752.

As of Christmas Eve, British health authorities announced that over 600,000 got the initial of two required Pfizer vaccine doses.

Extensive travel measures and community lockdowns could be lessened by the last day of February if the AstraZeneca-Oxford shot is given authorization right away and administered to up to 15 million most susceptible individuals in the UK, as reported by the Mirror.

Britain has arranged 100 million shots of the coronavirus vaccine.

Source: New York Post