The United Kingdom on Friday approved AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, becoming the first country in the world, to approve the vaccine developed by the company along with the University of Oxford.

Residents of the UK are already being administered with the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine since December 8, 2020, making this the second approval given by the country to a Covid-19 vaccine.

Health minister Matt Hancock hailed the approval as a moment of cheer for the UK and the world. He also announced that 100 million doses of the vaccine has been pre-ordered by the British government and the National Health Service (NHS) will begin the deployment of the vaccine from Monday (January 4, 2021).

Prime Minister Boris Johnson too welcomed the approval and called it a “truly fantastic news” and said that the government would vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible. Here is everything to know about the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine –

1. The AstraZeneca-Oxford university vaccine is priced at GBP 2.50 (USD 3.40) making it one of the affordable vaccines. Hancock also said that the vaccine would be deployed based on the “clinical need and not ability to pay.”

2. The vaccine can be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures of two to eight degrees Celsius, thus making it more practical and easier to store. In contrast, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine needs to be stored -70 degrees Celsius and the Moderna vaccine at -20 degrees Celsius.

3. AstraZeneca’s chief executive officer Pascal Soriot has said that the vaccine “should be effective” against the new coronavirus mutation spreading in the UK. he has assured that more tests would be carried out and said that new versions of the vaccine are being prepared.

Also read: New spike in UK cases as Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is approved

4. Being developed by a British pharma company, manufacturing and logistical distribution of the vaccine within the UK is easier. The company will also provide 40 million doses to the UK government within March 2021 and three billion doses globally in 2021.

5. It is a virus vector vaccine unlike the new messenger RNA technology used by Pfizer and Moderna. The version of virus used in the AstraZeneca vaccine is found in Chimpanzees and is used as the genetic materials to trigger the expected immune response inside human cells.

6. The vaccine was reported to be 62 per cent effective when administered as two full doses. However, when administered as a half dose followed by a full dose, the efficacy increased to 90 per cent. The company has decided to conduct more clinical trials to test the efficacy of the dosage regimens.

(With agency inputs)

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