The coronavirus pandemic in Europe could be brought under control by the end of 2021. This was announced by the European Commission, RIA Novosti reports.
The EC clarified that the pace of vaccination should play an important role in this process: to suppress the pandemic, it is necessary that about 70 percent of the population have protection to the virus. Achieving this figure is possible thanks to vaccination.
On December 21, the European Commission authorized the use of BioNTech and Pfizer's coronavirus vaccines in the European Union (EU) market. The first vaccine in the European Union has received a conditional approval, according to a statement from Brussels. The head of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen, stressed that now the drug will become available to all citizens of the European Union.
On December 14, UK Health Minister Matthew Hancock announced that a new strain of SARS-CoV-2 has been identified in the country, which is spreading faster than the original form. The virus spreads more easily from person to person and is therefore more contagious, he said. Later, experts recalled that a new type of coronavirus is spreading faster than the already known, but it is still impossible to talk about its greater danger. In addition, there is no evidence that the mutation of the virus reacts differently to the vaccine.
There are currently several COVID-19 vaccines in the world. So, in Russia two vaccines are registered: “Sputnik V” and “EpiVacCorona”. On December 5, Moscow started vaccination against coronavirus with Sputnik V. The United States and the United Kingdom also began inoculating the population with Pfizer / BioNTech.
