London/Zurich:
European nations rolling out the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine need to be versatile on the time involving the 1st and second doses, the World Health Organization’s director for the area mentioned on Thursday.
The WHO’s Hans Kluge’s comments come as some nations such as Britain are searching for to counter low vaccine supplies by extending the gap involving 1st and second doses to up to 12 weeks, and by thinking of reduce volume doses of some shots.
Kluge mentioned it was critical to strike a balance involving generating the most of restricted supplies and guarding as quite a few persons as feasible.
“It is important that such a decision represents a safe compromise between the limited global production capacity at the moment, and the imperative for governments to protect as many people as possible while reducing the burden of any subsequent wave on the health systems,” he told a media briefing.
Proposals to prolong the gap involving 1st and second dose have generated fierce debate amongst scientists. Pfizer and BioNTech have warned they have no proof their vaccine would continue to be protective if the second dose was provided more than 21 days following the 1st.
The EU gave emergency use approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech shot two weeks ago and hundreds of thousands of Europeans have received it considering the fact that the rollout started just more than a week ago.
Britain, which authorized the shot in December, has administered more than a million doses of the vaccine in just beneath a month.
The European Union has secured 200 million doses and has taken up an solution for one more one hundred million. It is also in talks for a new order of 50 to one hundred million doses, EU officials told Reuters on Tuesday.
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