On Wednesday, the UK authorized the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which will be rolled out next week with the seniors in care homes and health workers set to be first in line.
The approval by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency makes Britain one of the first countries to begin vaccinating its population. On the other hand, the FDA and the European Medicines Agency are still reviewing it.
The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the two-dose vaccine, meaning that it will have enough doses to vaccinate around a third of its 66 million population. BioNTech said Wednesday that the delivery of the 40 million doses will occur throughout 2020 and 2021.
Currently, the United Kingdom is going through the largest annual drop in GDP in 300 years amid another national lockdown. However, the beginning of the vaccination gives much-needed hope for economic recovery and return to normalcy.