BRITAIN BECOMES FIRST COUNTRY IN WORLD TO APPROVE CORONAVIRUS VACCINE

BRITAIN BECOMES FIRST COUNTRY IN WORLD TO APPROVE CORONAVIRUS VACCINE

Context

Britain becomes the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.

Details

• The initial batch of 800,000 will cover a relatively small number of health care workers, care home staff and residents, and people over age 80.
• The U.K. has one of the highest Covid-19 deaths rates per capita in the world, behind only those of Italy, Spain, Peru and Belgium.
• The government has accepted the recommendation from the Independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for use.

About 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

• It is a virus identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China.
• It is a new strain of the coronavirus that has not been identified previously is called a novel coronavirus (nCov).
• It is an infectious disease caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a virus closely related to the SARS virus.
• The 2019-nCov has been given the official name as COVID-19.
• Coronavirus is named for the crown-like spikes on their surface. ‘Corona’ in Latin means halo or crown.
• Coronavirus is zoonotic, which means that they can be transmitted between animals and people.