EU, 화이자 코로나19 백신 사용 승인…영국발 항공기 40여개국 입국금지<br /><br />The EU has approved the use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine,... paving the way for a mass vaccination roll out.<br />With fears over the spread of a new variant of the virus discovered in the U.K., experts say the current vaccines still work against the new strain.<br />Despite that, more than 40 countries have now banned arrivals from the U.K.<br />Lee Seung-jae has more.<br />The European Union on Monday approved use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine,... finalizing the recommendation of the EU drugs regulator who earlier in the day granted it conditional marketing authorization.<br />The head of the European Commission confirmed the authorization and called it "an important chapter" in the fight against the pandemic.<br />"Today, we add an important chapter in our fight against Covid-19. We took the decision to make available for European citizens the first Covid-19 vaccine. We granted conditional market authorization to the vaccine produced by BioNTech and Pfizer."<br />She added that the first batches would be shipped from Pfizer's manufacturing site in Belgium in the coming days,... with vaccinations to begin on Sunday.<br />As previously announced,... the vaccines will be available for all EU countries at the same time.<br />As for Moderna's vaccine,... opinion on that will be issued on January 6th.<br />With fear over a new strain of the COVID-19 virus out of Britain,... German health minister Jens Spahn insisted the approved Pfizer vaccine is still effective against the new variant.<br />More than 40 countries have now banned arrivals from the U.K. over fears the new strain will spread to their countries.<br />This includes flights to Canada, India and Spain.<br />The state of New York has also banned all U.K. arrival flights.<br />France has shut its borders to the U.K. for 48 hours,... meaning no lorries or ferries can leave from the port of Dover.<br />The new strain in the U.K. is said to be up to 70-percent more transmissible than the current strain,... but there's no evidence it's more deadly.<br />Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.<br />
