Astrazeneca-Oxford vaccine gets approval in UK, to be made available from next week

New Delhi : The United Kingdom became the first country in the world to approve Aztrazeneca-Oxford coronavirus vaccine as it battles the sudden surge in number of coronavirus cases due to new version of the virus.

"The government has today accepted the recommendation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to authorise Oxford University/AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine for use," the health ministry said.

More than 1.7 million people have already lost their lives across the world due to pandemic that began in Wuhan, China 12 months back.

Britain and South Africa in particular are grappling with new variants of the coronavirus, which the government and scientists say are more contagious; many countries have responded by banning passenger flights and blocking trade.

While the companies have already started studying about the new mutant, most of them believe that the current medicine would be effective on it.