All European Union member states plan to start vaccinations against COVID-19 from December 27, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Thursday.
"In Germany, we will start, if the approval comes as planned, on December 27. The other countries in the European Union want to be able to start and want to start from December 27," he said ahead of an online meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and executives from vaccine maker BioNTech. As a member of the European Union, Germany is obliged, by and large, to wait for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to approve the vaccine. The EMA is expected to make an announcement on December 21.
A senior European Union official said on Wednesday the bloc could give its final approval for the vaccine, developed by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, on December 23. "The fact that, in this extraordinary global situation, an mRNA vaccine like this is coming to the market so fast is the result of the wonderful individual achievement of researchers - but also of our approach," Merkel told the online event. "We believe in science, we support science." He added.
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