Washington, December 8: The vaccine against coronavirus, developed by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German drugmaker BioNTech, offers strong protection shortly after being administered on a person. This was stated in an internal committee note by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) - the drug regulator of the United States.

According to the FDA, the vaccine can provide immunity within 10 days of the first shot. The point was underlined by the FDA while analysing the documents submitted by Pfizer-BioNTech as it applied for authorisation of its vaccine candidate in the US. COVID-19 Vaccine: 30 Crore Indians to Be Vaccinated First in Immunisation Drive.

Apart from noting that the vaccine can provide immunity within the 10 days, the FDA also stated that no serious adverse effect was found on volunteers during the trials. Some of the participants experienced body aches and fever, which is expected on being injected with a vaccine.

The trials involved around 44,000 volunteers, with half of them being administered with the vaccine and the other half provided a placebo. Among the latter, the coronavirus cases kept on increasing, as per the general infection rate. On other hand, a 95 percent success was recorded in prevening coronavirus cases in the group that was administered with the experimental vaccine.

Notably, the Pfizer-BioNTech candidate has already received clearance in the United Kingdom. The country began the vaccination drive on Tuesday, with 90-year-old Maggie Keenan becoming the first person in the world to be administered with the dose outside the clinical trials.

The FDA is expected to take a final decision on Thursday on authorising the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Under the first phase of immunisation, healthcare and other frontline workers in the US are expected to be incolculated, followed by elderly persons falling in the high-risk group.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 08, 2020 07:51 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).