BREAKING NEWS

Biden, Johnson, welcome Pfizer vaccine, say safety measures still needed

US President-elect Joe Biden greeted Pfizer Inc's experimental COVID-19 vaccine as excellent news on Monday, but warned that widespread vaccination remains months away and Americans need to continue wearing masks and maintain social distancing.
"Today’s news is great news, but it doesn't change that fact," Biden said in a statement. "Today's announcement promises the chance to change that next year, but the tasks before us now remain the same."
The vaccine candidate has also been well-received in the UK; Britain expects to have 10 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech's candidate COVID-19 vaccine available by the end of the year if regulators approve it, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said on Monday, following positive clinical trial results.
The spokesman said that Britain had now ordered 40 million doses of the candidate vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, one of six that the government has agreed supply deals for.
Pfizer Inc PFE.N said on Monday its experimental COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective, a major victory in the fight against a pandemic that has killed more than a million people, battered the world's economy and upended daily life.
"In total we have procured 40 million doses of the Pfizer candidate vaccine with 10 million of those doses being manufactured and available to the UK by the end of the year if the vaccine is approved by the regulators," the spokesman said.