When and how will Covid-19 vaccines become available?

Britain on Wednesday became the first Western country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine, jumping ahead of the US and Europe after its regulator cleared a shot developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for emergency use in record time.

Pfizer, with partner BioNTech SE, and rival Moderna have released trial data showing their Covid-19 vaccines to be about 95% effective at preventing the illness, while AstraZeneca last month said its vaccine was on average about 70% effective.

The companies have said distribution could begin almost immediately after any approval.

When will companies roll out a vaccine?

Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca have already started manufacturing their vaccines, and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be rolled out from early next week in Britain.

This year, Pfizer said it would have enough to inoculate 25m people, Moderna will have enough for 10m people and AstraZeneca will have enough for more than 100 million people.

The US Department of Defense and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will manage distribution in the US, with some 20m people expected to be inoculated by the end of the year.

About 60m to 70m doses of Covid-19 vaccine could be available per month beginning in January and most Americans will have access to shots by mid2021, the government said on Tuesday. In the European Union, it is up to each country in the 27-member bloc to start distributing vaccines to their populations.

Who would get an approved vaccine and when in the US?

Upon authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the CDC has said first in line for vaccinations would be about 21 million health care workers and 3 million residents in long-term care facilities.

The US FDA is set to meet on December 10 to discuss whether to recommend emergency use authorisation of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Essential workers, a group of 87 million people who do crucial jobs that cannot be done from home, are the likely next group. This includes firefighters, police, school employees, transport workers, food and agriculture workers and food service employees.

When will a vaccine be available in other countries?

Britain could start a rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this month. The country had ordered 40 million doses

— enough for just under a third of the population.

Older care home residents and their carers will be the highest priority to receive the vaccine, followed by those over 80 years of age and front-line health workers.

The European Union (EU), Japan, Canada and Australia are all running rapid vaccine regulatory processes.

The EU drugs regulator, the European Medicines Agency, said it could give conditional marketing approval for Pfizer s

’ vaccine by December 29 and make a decision on Moderna s

’ by January 12. Most countries in the region have said the first vaccines would go to the elderly and vulnerable and front-line workers.

When will developing countries have access to vaccines?

COVAX, a programme led by the World Health Organisation and the GAVI vaccine group to pool funds from wealthier countries and non-profits to buy and distribute vaccines to dozens of poorer countries, has raised $2 billion (R32bn).

Its first goal is to vaccinate 3% of the people in these countries with a final goal of reaching 20%. It has signed a provisional agreement to buy AstraZeneca s

’ vaccine, which does not require storage in specialised ultra cold equipment like the Pfizer vaccine.

It is expected, but not certain, that less wealthy countries in Africa and Southeast Asia, such as India, will receive vaccines at low or no cost under this programme in 2021. Other countries, such as those in Latin America, may buy vaccines through COVAX. Several are also striking supply deals directly with drugmakers.