Hope of COVID-19 vaccine in UK by New Year

October 18, 2020 17:42

One of the UK's senior-most medical chiefs has indicated that a vaccine against COVID-19 could be ready to be deployed by the start of the New Year, according to a media report on Sunday.

Jonathan Van-Tam, England's Deputy Chief Medical Officer and one of the government's advisers on the coronavirus pandemic, has reportedly told members of Parliament that the vaccine created at Oxford University and being manufactured by AstraZeneca could be ready for rollout soon after Christmas in December.

In India, the vaccine has a Serum Institute of India tie-up as it undergoes trials.

"We aren't light years away from it. It isn't a totally unrealistic suggestion that we could deploy a vaccine soon after Christmas. That would have a significant impact on hospital admissions and deaths," The Sunday Times' quoted Van Tam as telling the MPs.

-- PTI

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