Jordan said it has approved China's Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, after previously giving the Pfizer-BioNTech jab the green light.

“Emergency use of the [...] Sinopharm vaccine against the novel coronavirus has been authorised,” the head of the Jordanian Food and Drug administration, Nizar Mheidat, told state television.

“It is the second vaccine available for use in Jordan after the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine,” which Jordan approved in December, he told Al-Mamlaka television. China's Sinopharm says its vaccine has a 79 per cent efficacy rate.