Chancellor Angela Merkel and the governors of Germany’s 16 states agreed Sunday to step up the country’s lockdown measures beginning Wednesday. The agency said it made the decision after receiving additional data from the vaccine makers. The vaccine is already being given daily to thousands of people in Britain, Canada and the United States, galling some Europeans who note that BioNTech is a Germany company. “Our goal is an approval before Christmas,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters earlier Tuesday in Berlin. “We want to still start vaccinating this year.”Asked by The Associated Press whether he had received direct confirmation that the vaccine would be approved by December.

Source: The Standard December 16, 2020 05:03 UTC