TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The European Medicines Agency (EMA) finally approved the use of Covid-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer and BioNTech. The move will allow Europe to follow the steps taken by England, the United States, and Canada, which have distributed vaccines made by Pfizer.

"Now, we will act fast," said European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen as quoted by Reuters on Monday, December 21, 2020.

Following the approval from EMA, the next step will be to gain the approval of the European Commission. As of the writing of this news, the European Commission is yet to study or provide approval for the Covid-19 vaccine.

Ursula Von Der Leyen promised that the approval process will go quickly. She targeted that the vaccination program for European countries will begin on December 27, 2020. Ursula said that Germany, France, Austria, and Italy have claimed to be able to begin vaccination on December 27, 2020.

"Medical workers and elders in nursing homes will be prioritized. The vaccination scheme for the public is targeted to begin at the end of the first quarter of 2021," as reported by Reuters.

So far, the Covid-19 pandemic has killed 470 thousand people in all across Europe. The European Union remains concerned that the number will increase during the winter because of the weather factor and because of many citizens will want to spend time with their relatives. On the other hand, there is another threat of the new Covid-19 variant originated from England.

To prevent the Covid-19 pandemic from getting worse, a number of European countries have applied a lockdown policy until January 2021. Some countries apply a more relaxed lockdown policy but apply curfews to prevent people from organizing parties during new year's eve. As for England, the majority of European countries have banned people from England to enter their territory temporarily.

ISTMAN MP | REUTERS