[Source: BBC]
A new coronavirus vaccine has been shown to be 89.3% effective in large-scale UK trials.
The Novavax jab is the first to show it is effective against the new variant of the virus discovered in the UK, the BBC’s medical editor Fergus Walsh said.
The PM Boris Johnson welcomed the “good news” and said the UK’s medicines regulator would now assess the vaccine.
“I think obviously everybody, you all want to be sure that we in government are now using every second of this lockdown to put that invisible shield around the elderly and the vulnerable in the form of vaccinations.”
The UK has secured 60 million doses of the jab, which will be made in Stockton-on-Tees.
The doses are expected to be delivered in the second half of this year if approved for use by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the government said.
The UK has so far approved three coronavirus vaccines for emergency use – one from Oxford University and AstraZeneca, another by Pfizer and BioNTech, and a third from drug firm Mode
