France expects national COVID-19 vaccine approval by Dec. 26 - minister

French Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Tuesday that the French medical regulatory body was expected to give approval to COVID-19 vaccines by Dec. 26 after the European Medicines Agency approved the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. France is planning to start its vaccination programme on Sunday.

Veran reiterated that as of now, there was no evidence that the new variant of the coronavirus detected in Britain was circulating in the country.