Oxford and AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine approved for use in the UK

The jab, which has been described as a “game changer”, was given the green light by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: "Much needed good news on the Covid front - and it is very good news.

"We’ve still got some difficult winter weeks ahead - but the light at the end of the tunnel just got a lot brighter. Let’s stick with it now - Spring will bring better times."

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The news comes amid increasing strain on hospitals in England, where the number of Covid-19 patients is the highest it has been during the pandemic.

The UK has ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford University vaccine – enough to vaccinate 50 million people.

England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said the jab is “safe and effective”, adding: “It is very good news that the independent regulator has now authorised for use the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.”

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises ministers, will publish its latest guidance on who should receive the vaccine and in which order later.

Data published in The Lancet medical journal in early December showed the vaccine was 62% effective in preventing Covid-19 among a group of 4440 people given two standard doses of the vaccine when compared with 4455 people given a placebo drug.

Of 1367 people given a half first dose of the vaccine followed by a full second dose, there was 90% protection against Covid-19 when compared with a control group of 1,374 people.

The MHRA has authorised two full doses of the vaccine to be given to people.

In the vaccine trial, 10 people given the placebo dummy drug were admitted to hospital with coronavirus, including two with severe Covid which resulted in one death.

But among those receiving the vaccine, there were no hospital admissions or severe cases.

People receiving the Oxford vaccine or the one from Pfizer/BioNTech, which is also being rolled out, will now receive their first dose of the vaccine followed by a second dose up to 12 weeks later.

The aim is to give as many people as possible a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

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AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot said: “Today is an important day for millions of people in the UK who will get access to this new vaccine.

“It has been shown to be effective, well-tolerated, simple to administer and is supplied by AstraZeneca at no profit.”

Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, who led the clinical trial, said it is “a landmark moment”.

But he said the impact of vaccines is “about getting them into people’s arms, stopping the virus from causing severe disease and hospitalisation, which we know that all of the vaccines can do very efficiently.”

He added: “There’s good protection with the first dose, up until the time of the second dose.

“And then the second dose is really important because we think that will be critical for the durability of the immune response that continues after that and hopefully will help us prevent further waves of disease once we have a large segment of the population vaccinated.”

During the Oxford vaccine trial, the half-dose followed by a full-dose regime came about as a result of an accident.

However, the MHRA was made aware of what happened and clinical trials for the vaccine were allowed to continue.

The Oxford vaccine can be stored in a standard fridge, unlike the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, which needs cold storage of around minus 70C.

This means the Oxford vaccine is easier to roll out to places such as care homes and GP surgeries.

Interim deputy chief medical officer for Scotland, Dave Caesar, described the vaccine approval as “another really positive step towards our way out of the pandemic that we’ve all been experiencing”.

Speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, he said: “It’s really important that we keep those restrictions in place, especially over the next few weeks as we roll out this vaccine which will give us an opportunity to find our way out of the pandemic.

“But it is still a case of holding the line in terms of what we need to do until we get that vaccine out to all the people that are are needing it as soon as possible.”

He added: “There are still some details to work out that we’ll hear more about through today – it was only approved late last night – and some of those details will then define exactly the timing of some of those first days as being delivered.

“But we’re expecting to be able to administer this in the next week or two, so really quickly from approval to administration.

“We’ve got an army of folks who are standing by to both get the appropriate training, which is really important in delivering a new treatment, and then we are ready to deploy this vaccine across Scotland, as I said, in the next couple of weeks and really start ramping up that delivery very soon.”

The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford also hailed the vaccine’s approval as a “good day” during an interview this morning.

He told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “We’re all just so relieved to know that it’s got its approval and that we can look forward to the entire population being offered this vaccine, getting to a position where we can start to take off some of the restrictions that are there.

“There is hope – it’s obviously going to take some time to get the vaccine distributed. But by goodness, it’s a good day when we look at that news.”

With Covid-19 cases rising sharply, today Matt Hancock is due to announce any changes to England's tier areas in a statement to the Commons.

“We are facing a very significant challenge in the NHS right now,” he told Sky News.

“There has been a significant rise in the number of cases – the highest number of cases recorded yesterday, 53,000 cases.

“We are going to have to take further action.”