The biotech giant Pfizer and German partner BioNTech sought approval Friday to roll out their coronavirus vaccine early, a first step towards relief as surging infections prompt a return to shutdowns that traumatized nations and the global economy earlier this year.

The world is looking to scientists for salvation from the global pandemic. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said its vaccines committee would meet on December 10 to discuss the request for emergency use authorization.

“The FDA recognizes that transparency and dialogue are critical for the public to have confidence in COVID-19 vaccines,” the organization’s head Stephen Hahn said in a statement.

“I want to assure the American people that the FDA’s process and evaluation of the data for a potential Covid-19 vaccine will be as open and transparent as possible.”

He said he could not predict how long the review would take, but the federal government said earlier the final green light would probably come in December.

Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla called the filing “a critical milestone in our journey to deliver a COVID-19 vaccine to the world.”

The BioNTech/Pfizer shot and another one being developed by the US firm Moderna have taken the lead in the global chase for a vaccine.

EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the European bloc could also approve both before the end of the year.

But the vexed and enormously complex question of how to expedite production and distribution means there will be no immediate reprieve.

And the latest wave of the pandemic is hitting many regions harder than the first that swept the globe after the virus emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

Worldwide deaths are approaching 1.4 million and infections nearing 57 million — although the true numbers are unknown since countries have different reporting methods and many cases go undetected.

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He said “strong but necessary” restrictions would not apply to the UK where 460 cases of the illness have been confirmed. “Europe saw more cases because governments failed to stop travel from China, where the COVID-19 epidemic began,” Mr Trump said in his address to the nation.

The move comes after the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday called the coronavirus outbreak – which has spread to over 100 countries – a “pandemic”, issuing a grim warning that the global spread and severity of the illness was due to “alarming levels of inaction”.

Europe has faced a mounting number of cases — including a slew of new countries clocking first deaths — prompting governments to roll out increasingly tough measures to slow the rapid spread of the virus.

Hours before his official address, Mr Trump, in a series of tweets, said that “US is making a policy to prevent, detect, treat and create a vaccine against coronavirus to save lives in America and the world.”

America is the Greatest Country in the world. We have the best scientists, doctors, nurses and health care professionals. They are amazing people who do phenomenal things every day….,” he wrote in another post.
Trump asked the media to view this as a time of unity and strength and said the country must beat the “enemy of the World, the Coronavirus as quickly and safely as possible”.

The Washington on Wednesday declared a state of emergency over coronavirus. The mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, made the announcement as the US capital confirmed 10 cases of the infection

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