Here’s why UK’s approval of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is so important globally. Get today’s latest.
LONDON (AP) — Britain authorized an easy-to-handle coronavirus vaccine Wednesday and decided to stretch out the time between doses to allow more people to get some level of protection faster as infections surge. The first greenlight for the shot dubbed the “vaccine for the world” brought a measure of hope that the pandemic could be brought under control.
The vaccine developed by Oxford University and drugmaker AstraZeneca is expected to be relied on in many countries because of its low cost and the fact that it can be kept in refrigerators rather than at the ultra-cold or freezer temperatures some other vaccines require.
“This wonderful news brings renewed hope at a time of rising infections and unprecedented pressure on health services in the U.K. and beyond. It is now critical that this hope can be shared by all nations,” said Anna Marriot, Health Policy Manager at Oxfam aid agency. Read more:
Here’s an update on all developments. Scroll or swipe further for in-depth coverage.
- The US set two more devastating Covid-19 records as it counted down the hours to the end of what has been a calamitous year for the nation. On Tuesday, it recorded more than 3,700 new deaths linked to the virus, a chilling new high. The US also reported the most Covid-19 hospitalizations, with more than 124,600 patients nationwide, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
- On a state level, Texas officials reported record-high hospitalizations Tuesday, with more than 11,700 Covid-19 patients across the state while Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said a temporary hospital with an additional 60 beds could open within the next few days.
- A new variant of the coronavirus that may be more contagious has been found in a Colorado man who had not been traveling, triggering a host of questions about how the first reported U.S. case of the new version showed up in the Rocky Mountain state.
- A Chinese drugmaker said Wednesday its coronavirus vaccine was found to be 79.3% effective at preventing infection in preliminary data from the final round of testing, moving Beijing closer to possibly being able to fulfill its pledge to supply other developing countries.
- President-elect Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration Tuesday for the pace of distributing COVID-19 vaccines and predicted that “things will get worse before they get better” when it comes to the pandemic.
- Luke Letlow, Louisiana’s incoming Republican member of the U.S. House, died Tuesday night from complications related to COVID-19 only days before being sworn into office. He was 41.
- California’s most densely populated area continues to set new death and hospitalization records and will remain under strict stay-home orders for the foreseeable future as another hospital-filling coronavirus surge looms in mere weeks, public health officials said.
For more summaries and full reports, please select from the articles below. Scroll further for the latest virus numbers and pandemic photos from 2020.
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Virus by the numbers
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