European Union Gives Green Light For AstraZeneca Vaccine To Use

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JAKARTA - The European drug regulatory agency has approved the COVID-19 vaccine made by AstraZeneca to be given to the public and to coronavirus patients. This is the third vaccine that has been licensed for use in the European Union.

The AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine has demonstrated its efficacy of about 60 percent in the trials on which this decision is based, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement.

The EMA also states that there haven't been enough test results in people over the age of 55 to determine how well the vaccine works for that age group.

However, the EMA said protection still needed to be done and the vaccine could be given to the elderly.

"With this third positive opinion, we have expanded the arsenal of vaccines available to EU and European Economic Area (EEA) member states to combat the pandemic and protect citizens", said Emer Cooke, Executive Director of EMA.

Europe desperately needs more coronavirus vaccines to accelerate its vaccination program, but vaccine suppliers such as AstraZeneca and Pfizer are facing difficulties in delivering the number of vaccines that they promised for months earlier this year.

AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine is given by two injections into the arm, wherein the second shot of is given between 4 and 12 weeks after the first injection.

Previously, the European Union was concerned about the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the elderly when the German vaccine committee said the vaccine should only be given to people between the ages of 18 and 64, due to a lack of data on how effective it is in older people over 64 years).