European regulator gives green light for Astra-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine

Europe's medicines regulator on Friday recommended approving AstraZeneca and Oxford University's COVID-19 vaccine for people over the age of 18. Europe urgently needs more shots to speed up its inoculation programme with suppliers such as AstraZeneca and Pfizer facing difficulties in delivering the quantities promised for the early months of the year.

The AstraZeneca jab should be given only to people aged between 18 and 64, due to a lack of data about how effective it is in older people, Germany's vaccine committee had said in a draft recommendation on Thursday. (Writing by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru, Editing by Douglas Busvine)