Canadian health officials have authorized use of the country’s first COVID-19 vaccine. Health Canada announced the move Wednesday, saying a “thorough, independent review of the evidence” determined that the vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech meets the “stringent safety, efficacy and quality requirements for use in Canada.”
The move makes Canada just the third country to authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for general use after the U.K. greenlighted it last week and began widely administering immunizations on Tuesday. Bahrain also granted an emergency use authorization to the vaccine last week.
In the U.S., meanwhile, emergency authorization of the vaccine could come within days. In an analysis released Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration affirmed the vaccine’s safety and its 95% effectiveness at preventing the coronavirus.
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