On Thursday, France's medical regulator decided to give the green light for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination against Covid-19 to be rolled-out in the country. The French approval comes a day after the European Medicines Agency gave its go-ahead on Monday.
In a statement, the Haute Autorité de la Santé (HAS) said, "The vaccine will be used for people aged 16 and over, including elderly."
It pointed out that the vaccination campaign will kick off on Sunday; health workers and older people among the first to get Covid-19 shots.
The French authorities are concerned that the holiday period could see a new spike in infections, after the country's total Covid-19 death toll went above 60,000 last week.
Authorities said late Tuesday that nearly 12,000 new cases had been reported in the previous 24 hours, and 386 deaths.
Notably, BioNTech’s vaccine, developed together with US pharmaceutical company Pfizer, is authorized for use in more than 45 countries including Britain, the United States and the EU.
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