The EU has approved Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine.

Approval by the European Medicines Agency marks the second regulatory green light for the shot.

It’s already been given the go-ahead by U.S. authorities.

In clinical trials the vaccine proved around 95% effective at preventing illness.

It was not found to cause any serious safety issues.

Experts say the U.S. firm’s product should be effective against the mutated variant of the virus found in the UK.

Some officials in EU member states have criticised the EMA for being slow to grant approvals.

Now the Moderna offering is the second vaccine it’s okayed.

Hundreds of thousands of Europeans have already received a rival inoculation produced by Pfizer and BioNTech.

In the UK, regulators have also approved a version developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

On Wednesday (January 6) the Netherlands became one of the last places in the EU to start conducting vaccinations.

Its first injection went to a 39-year old care home nurse.