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GENEVA, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization
(WHO) on Monday listed AstraZeneca and Oxford
University's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, widening access
to the relatively inexpensive shot in the developing world.
A WHO statement said it had approved the vaccine as produced
by AstraZeneca-SKBio (Republic of Korea) and the Serum Institute
of India.
"We now have all the pieces in place for the rapid
distribution of vaccines. But we still need to scale up
production," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO
Director-General.
The listing by the UN health agency comes days after a WHO
panel provided interim recommendations on the vaccine, saying
two doses with an interval of around 8 to 12 weeks must be given
to all adults, and can be used in countries with the South
African variant of the coronavirus as well.
The AstraZeneca/Oxford shot has been hailed because it is
cheaper and easier to distribute than some rivals, including
Pfizer/BioNTech's , which was listed for
emergency use by the WHO late in December.
Nearly 109 million people have been reported to be infected
by the novel coronavirus globally and more than 2.5 million have
died, according to a Reuters tally.
Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and
territories since the first cases were identified in China in
December 2019.
(Reporting by John Revill, John Miller, Michael Shields in
Zurich, Kate Kelland in London, Editing by William Maclean)
