By Elishya Perera
LONDON (CWBN)_The COVID-19 vaccine designed by the University of Oxford, in collaboration with AstraZeneca has been approved for use in the UK. Health Secretary Matt Hancock noted that the vaccine rollout would begin on January 4, and will accelerate into the first few weeks of next year.
The UK has ordered 100 million doses from the manufacturer AstraZeneca, which will be sufficient to vaccinate 50 million people, as it is administered in two doses each.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine becomes the second jab to be approved in the UK, after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine received the greenlight from the British regulators earlier this month.
Since 91-year-old Margaret Keenan became the first in the world to get that jab outside of a clinical trial on December 8, more than 600,000 people in the UK have been vaccinated so far. However, the approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to significantly expand vaccination in the country, as it is cheap and easy to mass produce.
Another noteworthy feature of this vaccine is that it can be stored in a standard fridge, in contrast to the Pfizer-BioNTech jab which needs ultra-cold storage at -70C.
When determining who would qualify to receive the initial doses, officials will make decisions based on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
However, a spokesperson to the Department of Health and Social Care said that the priority should be to give the first dose to as many people in at-risk groups, instead of providing the required two doses in as short a time.
Nevertheless, the spokesperson noted that the second dose is important for long term protection from the virus. “Everyone will still receive their second dose and this will be within 12 weeks of their first. The second dose completes the course and is important for longer term protection.”
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was designed in the first months of 2020, and has since been through large-scale clinical trials involving thousands of people.
The first analysis of the trial data showed 70 per cent of people were protected from developing COVID-19. However, this figure was at 62 per cent when people were given two full doses of the jab, and 90 per cent effective when people were first given a half dose and then a full one.
On the other hand, unpublished data suggests that leaving a longer gap between the first and second doses increases the overall effectiveness of the vaccine.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, on the other hand, calls for two doses which are three weeks apart, and is said to be 95 percent effective against COVID-19.
Earlier this month, a new COVID-19 strain was discovered in the UK, which is said to be 70 per cent more transmissible than previous strains. However, all the vaccines are expected to be equally effective against the new variants, which are not yet proven to be more lethal.
