UK vaults past US and EU in the reace to approve a COVID-19 vaccine

The UK on Wednesday became the first Western nation to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, vaulting past the US and the European Union in the race to approve a vaccine, months into a pandemic that has killed almost 1.5 million people worldwide.

The Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine is the first one in the UK to be approved for use, with hopes people can start receiving the injection within a week.

"Help is on the way," UK's Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced after the country's regulators granted emergency authorisation for a vaccine made by US pharma giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla hailed the emergency authorisation as "a historic moment in the fight against Covid-19." "We believe it is really the start of the end of the pandemic," BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin told CNN.

"Good news, we have a vaccine that is safe and effective," Vaccine and Immunisation committee chair Wei Shen Lim said.

The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine -- enough to vaccinate 20 million people. Hancock told the BBC that an initial 800,000 doses would be delivered from Pfizer's facilities in Belgium to the UK next week, and "many millions" more before the end of the year.

The vaccine has been rolled out at extraordinary speed, from conception to approval in around 11 months, according to BioNTech. The process usually takes years.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK has bought 40 million doses of vaccines, and the rollout will begin next week.

Top of the list is the elderly in care homes, as well as health and social workers.

The rollout will be an "immense logistical challenge", due to factors such as the temperature it needs to be stored at.

Through a combination of the need to keep the vaccine at ultra cold storage and the fact that the jab comes in batches of 975 that cannot be split up at the moment, immunisation will only be offered from a network of 50 hospitals to start with.

But Johnson said it will be "some months before all the most vulnerable are protected" and we must not get "carried away with over-optimism".

"Our plan does rely on all of us continuing to make sacrifices for those we love," he added.

The deadly virus has claimed over 59,000 lives across the UK amid waves of lockdowns to control its spread since March.