Vaccinating children "next big ethical debate" for UK government: report

LONDON, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The British government will see vaccination of children as the "next big ethical debate" as the country seeks to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, local media reported Wednesday.

The British government is currently carrying out a review on the ethical dilemmas around vaccine passports and overseas travel, according to Sky News.

The latest development came as U.S. drug company Pfizer announced that trails of its vaccine show 100 percent efficacy and a strong immune response on 12 to 15-year-olds.

It is understood that children are less likely to be seriously ill with or die of coronavirus, but they can easily spread the disease to adults.

Pfizer has said it will ask for emergency U.S. and European authorization for younger age groups. It remains unclear what will happen in Britain as the current vaccines are authorized only for adults.

Another 4,052 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,345,788, according to official figures released Wednesday.

The country also reported another 43 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 126,713. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.

Nearly 31 million people have been given the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the official figures.

To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Russia, the United States as well as the European Union have been racing against time to roll out coronavirus vaccines.