University Oxford and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca have applied for permission from the UK health regulator to make their COVID-19 vaccine available.British Health Minister Matt Hancock said Wednesday.

“I’m glad to be able to tell you that The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine developed here in the UK has submitted its complete data package to MHRA for approval, The official said.

This is the next step towards a The decision to distribute the vaccineAnd the Minister of Health added at a press conference, in which he also announced that Great Britain would impose travel restrictions on South Africa in order to slow the spread of the new strain of the virus also circulating in the country, which has proven to be more contagious.

“We are very grateful to the South African government for its scientific rigor and for the openness and transparency with which it handled when the new alternative was discovered here,” Hancock said.

If approved, this would become the second vaccine application in the country, after Pfizer / BioNTech became the first on December 3. The American and German pharmaceutical vaccine has been given to 500,000 of the country’s most vulnerable people and health workers.

“The vaccine is our way out of all of this. Although birthdays and winters are difficult, we know the transformative power of science helps us find a wayThe official reassured.

The vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, is expected to meet most of Britain’s requirements, with the government ordering 100 million doses.

And in another paragraph of his speech, the minister announced that More regions of England will enter the maximum restrictions against the pandemic in the coming daysGiven the expansion of the strain in recent days that was reported last week that appears to be transmitting faster than copies of the virus known to date.

After this alternative was revealed, More than fifty countries have limited travel from the UK.

According to the latest official figures, And infections on British soil have increased by 61.2% in the past seven days, compared to the previous seven days.

In England, 17,709 people have been hospitalized due to the Coronavirus, a number increasingly close to 18974 hospitalized and reached at the height of the first wave of the epidemic, on April 12. Last Tuesday, the British health authorities recorded 36,804 new positives in one day, the highest number since the start of the epidemic. Additionally, they reported 691 deaths In the last 24 hours.

“Christmas and the beginning of 2021 will be a difficult period. The new shape makes everything more difficult because it spreads faster. But we must not give up, we know that we can control this virus, “the Minister of Health said.

With information from AFP and EFE

Read on:

The United Kingdom discovered a strain of Coronavirus in South Africa on its soil and claims it is spreading faster than the English strain