German heathminister urges EU to OK vaccine

Germany’s health BERLIN— minister demanded that the European Union’s regulatory agency work faster to approve a coronavirus vaccine and bring an end to the suffffffffffffering on the continent, but the head of the agency said Monday that his team is already working “around the clock.”

Other German officials suggested that residents should forgoChristmas shopping and attend Christmas Mass online as a new lockdownloomed thatwill close schools and most stores.

Chancellor AngelaMerkel and the governors of Germany’s 16 states agreed Sunday to step up the country’s lockdown measures beginning Wednesday and running to Jan. 10 to stop the exponential rise of COVID19 cases. Germany has been hitting records of new daily infectionsandvirusdeaths in recentweeks, andMerkelsaid exisitingrestrictionsimposed inNovemberhadfailedtohalt the rise in new infections.

Expressing impatience, Health Minister Jens Spahn said in tweets late Sunday thatGermany, whichhas createdmore than400vaccinationcentersandhas activated about 10,000 doctors and medical staffff to start mass vaccinations as early as Tuesday, was hamstrung by the lack of regulatory approval.

It was especially galling because the vaccine developedbyGermany’sBioNTech and American drugmaker Pfifizer has been authorized for use in Britain, theUnited States, Canada and other countries. But it’s still waiting for approval by the European Medicines Agency, or

EMA, and can therefore not be used inGermany yet or in any of the EU’s 27 nations.

The EMA has a Dec. 29 meeting on vaccines but Spahn said the agency’s assessment and approval of the Pfifizer-BioNTech vaccine should “take place as quickly as possible.”

“This is alsoabout thetrust of the citizens in the European Union’s capacity to act,” Spahn wrote. “Every day that we can start sooner withthe vaccinations lessens the suffffffffffffering and protects thosewho are the most vulnerable.”