WHO gives emergency use authorisation to Moderna's COVID jab

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday listed the Moderna coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, adding another shot to its arsenal in the fight against the coronavirus.

According to a report, the shot from Moderna joins shots from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca-SK Bio, Serum Institute of India and Janssen on WHO's list of emergency use vaccines. "Today, WHO listed the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine (mRNA 1273) for emergency use, making it the fifth vaccine to receive emergency validation from WHO," it said in a statement, according to Sputnik. WHO experts recommend usng the vaccine for patients over 18 years of age. The drug is mRNA-based, it has an efficacy of 94.1 per cent, according to WHO estimates. The vaccine can be stored between -25oC and -15oC, but it can also be stored for up to 30 days at temperatures between 2°C and 8°C.

The addition of Moderna's shot to the WHO's emergency use listing is a prerequisite for it to be a part of COVAX, the program to disseminate shots to low-income countries. It also allows countries to expedite their own regulatory approval to import and administer the COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. granted emergency use authorization to the Moderna shot in December, with the European Union following shortly after in January. The authorisation comes as the world works to ramp up its coronavirus vaccinations to significantly curb the pandemic over a year after it broke out in Wuhan, China.