British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday he hoped the leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates would be approved by regulators before Christmas. “No vaccine has yet got MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) approval, but we’re obviously hoping that both the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will get approved in the course of the next few days and weeks,” Johnson told reporters during a visit to a medical facility. Asked if they could be approved before Christmas, he said: “That’s the hope.”