Bahrain announced on Friday that it had approved the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, becoming the second country after Britain to green-light the drug.
“The approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will add an extra important layer to the kingdom’s national Covid-19 response,” said Mariam al-Jalahma, CEO of the National Health regulatory agency , consistent with a press release carried by the official Bahrain press agency (BNA).
Manama didn’t specify when it might begin the rollout of the vaccine by US pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
Britain on Wednesday said it approved the Covid-19 vaccine for general use, with plans to start out rolling it out next week.
In November, the tiny Gulf kingdom of Bahrain approved the utilization of China’s Sinopharm vaccine on frontline healthcare workers.
Bahrain has thus far recorded quite 87,000 novel coronavirus cases, including 341 deaths.
“This authorisation may be a goal we’ve been working toward since we first declared that science will win,” said Lindsey Dietschi, Pfizer representative within the Gulf, consistent with BNA.
Britian insisted Friday its world-first approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine met all safety standards, striving to tamp any public unease after US and European officials queried the rapid process.
Companies are racing to seek out a vaccine for the coronavirus, which has killed over 1.5 million people and infected quite 65 million since it emerged in China in December of last year.
Follow us on Twitter: @oyogist
