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We begin with this breaking news.
The UK has become the first country to approve Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for widespread use... leaping ahead of the U.S. and the European Union.
In a statement on Wednesday, the British government said it has approved the vaccine, following months of rigorous clinical trials and studies by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
The vaccine will now be rolled out in the country next week, with elderly people in care homes and medical workers first in line.
Pfizer and BioNTech announced in July an agreement with the UK to supply 30 million doses of its mRNA-based vaccine, once authorized for emergency use.
That agreement was increased to 40 million doses in early October.
As a two-dose vaccine, the UK will have enough doses to vaccinate around a third of its 66 million population.
So far, studies have shown the vaccine developed by Pfizer and German partner BioNTech to be 95 percent effective in preventing the virus.
