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Agencies:

Coronavirus update: 2nd COVID-19 vaccine authorized in U.S preparing to ship out

December 21, 2020

A new strain of Coronavirus identified in the United Kingdom is up to 70% more infectious but it is not thought to be more deadly and vaccines should still be effective, U.K Prime Minister Boris Johnson and scientists has said.

While the WHO has assured that they are closely monitoring the developments, Netherlands has banned flights carrying passengers from the United Kingdom from December 20 to January 1.

Workers on Sunday began packaging shipments of the second COVID-19 vaccine authorized in the U.S, a desperately needed boost to efforts to bring the Coronavirus pandemic under control.

Employees at a factory in the Memphis area were boxing up the vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. and the National Institutes of Health. The much needed shots are expected to be given starting Monday, just three days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized their emergency rollout.

Later Sunday, an expert committee will debate who should be next in line for early doses of the Moderna vaccine and a similar one from Pfizer Inc. and Germany�s BioNTech. Pfizer�s shots were first shipped out a week ago and started being used the next day, kicking off the nation�s biggest vaccination drive.