Britain approves Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for use

LONDON:Britain's medical regulator on Friday approved Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for use, the health ministry said, adding that it had agreed to purchase an additional 10 million doses of the shot as it eyed a spring rollout of the shot.

Three COVID-19 vaccines have now been approved for use in Britain, with Pfizer/BioNTech's shot and one developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca already being rolled out.

Britain now has 17 million doses of Moderna's vaccine on order, and supplies will begin to be delivered to the UK from spring once Moderna expands its production capability.

"We have already vaccinated nearly 1.5 million people across the UK and Moderna’s vaccine will allow us to accelerate our vaccination programme even further once doses become available from the spring," health minister Matt Hancock said.

Moderna's vaccine was 94% effective in preventing disease in late stage clinical trials, and it has already been approved for use in the United States, Canada and the European Union.