The green light for Moderna Inc’s vaccine from the European Medicines Authority (EMA), and later the European Commission, was a big boost for European hopes of containing a disease that has infected more than 85 million people globally and killed nearly 1.9 million.

“With the Moderna vaccine, the second one now authorised in the EU, we will have a further 160 million doses. And more vaccines will come,” said Ursula von der Leyen, who heads the European Union executive.

The EMA granted conditional marketing approval two weeks ago for a similar vaccine from U.S. company Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has been given to hundreds of thousands of Europeans since roll-out began a week ago though the campaign has been uneven, with officials in Germany and France frustrated at the slow rate of progress.

The Moderna vaccine will help accelerate vaccination campaigns in Europe as concerns grow about two more infectious variants of the virus, detected in South Africa and Britain, which have driven a surge in cases..

Governments in many countries face growing public criticism for appearing slow to curb the spread of the virus, including the Netherlands, which started its vaccination drive a week after many other EU member states.

DuSanna Elkadiri, a 39-year-old nurse who looks after dementia patients at a care home in the south of the country, received a shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

“This is the beginning of the end of this crisis,” Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said at a brief ceremony.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said his government had been preparing for a vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca to be approved first, and this had reduced the Dutch authorities’ flexibility.

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