The Chinese mainland on Wednesday recorded 138 new COVID-19 cases – 124 local transmissions and 14 from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Thursday.

The domestic cases were reported in north and northeast China provinces: 81 in Hebei and 43 in Heilongjiang.

Seventy-eight new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were recorded, while 599 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. Thirty-six patients were discharged from hospitals. 

The total number of the confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland has reached 87,844. One death was confirmed in Hebei Province on Wednesday, which brought the death toll to 4,635.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 9,385 (8,584 recoveries, 161 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 842 (731 recoveries, 7 deaths)

Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province reported 43 new COVID-19 cases and 68 asymptomatic cases on Wednesday, according to local health officials.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 23 million on Wednesday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The caseload of the country, which has the most confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world, rose to 23,029,450, with a total of 383,939 deaths, as of 5:22 p.m. local time (2222 GMT), according to the CSSE tally.

Northeast China's Liaoning Province on Tuesday postponed the fifth session of the 13th provincial people's congress in light of the latest COVID-19 outbreak.

World Health Organization (WHO) experts tasked with the origin-tracing of the novel coronavirus will fly to Wuhan, central China, on Thursday from Singapore, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian revealed at Tuesday's daily briefing.

Zhao did not provide further details on their itinerary, adding China will share further information if there's any.

China's National Health Commission (NHC) Monday announced WHO experts will come to China on January 14 to conduct joint research with Chinese scientists on the origin-tracing of the novel coronavirus, the third such visit since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Zhao has told Monday's briefing that China supports international scientists in carrying out global scientific research on the origin and route of transmission of the COVID-19 virus, as well as member states in conducting cooperation on the animal origin of the virus under the leadership of the WHO.

China invited 10 international experts, in February and July last year, to come to the country, and Chinese experts have maintained frequent interactions with the WHO and international experts through video seminars, introducing China's origin-tracing outcomes.

Hebei Province reported 21 new domestic infections as of 10 a.m. on Tuesday, local officials told a press conference, including 16 from capital city Shijiazhuang.

A total of 12 districts and counties have reported cases in Shijiazhuang, with over 76 percent of the infections coming from the Gaocheng District - the only high risk area of COVID-19 pandemic in China.

Shijiazhuang has so far recorded over 300 local cases since January 2.

Over 70 percent of those infected in the city are farmers, the majority of whom are from middle-aged and elderly groups, Li Qi, a Hebei health official, told the press conference.

To rein in the spread of the virus, three cities - Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, and Langfang - which are hit hard by the recent COVID-19 outbreak will be put under close-off management, with people and vehicles not allowed to go out except for necessary needs.

Various Chinese provinces and cities have started tracing and quarantining for people who have stayed or may have come into close contact with confirmed cases in Hebei Province.

Two patients in north China's Hebei Province were in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, before being confirmed as COVID-19 cases on Sunday, according to Hebei authorities.

The movements of the two cases were released on Monday. One patient, identified as case No. 57, traveled from Wuhan to Shijiazhuang City on January 4 by train. Authorities had reached 548 close contacts of the patient and all tested negative for COVID-19.

The other patient, identified as case No. 41, traveled from Wuhan to Shijiazhuang City by train on December 25, 2020 with all seven close contacts testing negative.

Wuhan authorities said the city had investigated the movements of the two cases in Wuhan immediately after receiving reports. All districts related to the cases were investigated and conducted environmental disinfection.

Shijiazhuang of north China's Hebei Province started a second round of mass nucleic acid tests for its residents on Monday, with residents in key areas among the first group. 

The city's biggest shopping mall was designated a medium-risk area on Sunday, when it was found that one confirmed case had visited the location on January 1. 

Now, people living in the residential complex above the mall are receiving their second swab tests. 

The mall has been closed since January 5 at the request of the local government, and the managing company of the mall has shifted its focus to pandemic control. A garage has been set aside for the tests.  

"Anti-pandemic control is now our priority. Our residents have enough supplies so far," said Shen Haisong, head of the temporary anti-pandemic team established by the owner of the shopping mall. 

Four medical staff members from a local hospital are there to collect samples and are aided in their efforts by smart tech. 

"At many testing spots, including this one, we've adopted a pooling method, putting every five samples into one test tube. This app allows us to scan individuals' IDs and test tube codes, which will greatly increase efficiency," said Dr. Guo Duan from Hebei Reproductive and Maternity Hospital.  

Right now, testing is only focused on noted risk areas and particular groups of residents, but will soon be expanded citywide. City officials say this round of testing will be completed in two days. 

It took Shijiazhuang three days to finish the first round of sweeping tests. A total of 364 people tested positive for COVID-19, mostly in Gaocheng District of the city.  

All confirmed cases are now being treated in Hebei Chest Hospital. 

The city authority has extended the lockdown measures for another seven days, and shut down public transport on Saturday.  

A temporary lab was built in the city to help with the testing work. Hospitals and labs have been mobilized to send personnel and equipment to help fight COVID-19 in Shijiazhuang. With the aid, Hebei Province is able to test over seven million nucleic acid samples a day. 

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told a meeting of ruling party executives on Tuesday that he would declare a state of emergency for the three western prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo to stem the spread of COVID-19, Kyodo news reported.

Responding to pressure from Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures in eastern Japan, Suga last week declared a state of emergency for the greater metropolitan area.

Malaysia's King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah declared a national state of emergency to curb the spread of COVID-19, the National Palace said in a statement.

The state of emergency will last until August 1 or earlier depending on whether COVID-19 cases can be curbed, the statement added. 

One more community in Gu'an County of Langfang City, north China's Hebei Province, has been designated as medium-risk for COVID-19, the provincial health commission said on Tuesday.

All residents in the county were asked to stay at home for seven days for observation starting from Tuesday, the local authority said.

A total of 39 areas in Shijiazhuang and Xingtai have been classified as medium-risk, and the worst-hit district of Gaocheng in Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital, has been classified as high risk.

The Chinese mainland on Monday recorded 55 new COVID-19 cases – 42 local transmission and 13 from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday.

The domestic cases were reported in northern and northeastern China: 40 in Hebei Province, one in Heilongjiang Province and one in Beijing.

Eighty-one new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were recorded, while 565 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No deaths related to COVID-19 were registered on Monday, and 31 patients were discharged from hospitals. 

The total number of the confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland has reached 87,591, and the death toll stands at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 9,283 (8,468 recoveries, 159 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 834 (726 recoveries, 7 deaths)

North China's Hebei Province will postpone the fourth session of the 13th provincial people's congress originally scheduled on January 25 amid the latest COVID-19 outbreak.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday welcomed China's announcement regarding the international team examining the origins of virus.

"We look forward to working closely with our (Chinese) counterparts on this critical mission to identify the virus source & its route of introduction to the human population," Tedros wrote on Twitter.

North China's Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province will start a second round of mass nucleic acid testing for all residents on Tuesday due to the latest outbreak, Meng Xianghong, deputy mayor of the city announced on Monday.

Over 10 million samples were collected in the first round of testing in Shijiazhuang, and 354 came back positive after testing, according to local health officials.

Shijiazhuang reported 16 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and five new asymptomatic cases as of noon on Monday. 

Indonesia's Food and Drugs Monitoring Agency (BPOM) on Monday gave the green light for the emergency use of a COVID-19 vaccine produced by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech.

The vaccine, named CoronaVac, met the safety standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO), BPOM chief Penny Lukito said at a press conference.

"Based on the data and considering the guidance from (the WHO), CoronaVac has met the requirements to get the permit to use the vaccine," said Lukito.

The evaluation results of the supporting safety data obtained from the phase three clinical studies in Indonesia, Brazil and Turkey are overall safe with the incidence of mild to moderate side effects, she said.

Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the country will receive the raw materials to produce 15 million doses of the vaccine from Sinovac on Tuesday.

Conditional CoronaVac vaccination among high-risk groups in the country, including healthcare workers and other civil servants, is expected to begin this week.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said he would be the first person to receive the vaccine. 

"Why is the President first? It's not about putting myself first but to ensure everyone that this vaccine is safe and halal," Widodo said on social media.

As of Monday afternoon, there have been more than 800,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in Indonesia. The coronavirus epidemic has claimed more than 24,000 lives across the archipelago, according to the Health Ministry.

(With input from Xinhua News Agency, AP)

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region reported 41 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, taking its total caseload to 9,283, the Center for Health Protection (CHP) said on Monday.

Among the new cases, 38 were locally transmitted and three others were from overseas, the CHP said. Eleven cases were from an unknown origin. 

Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has reported 20 asymptomatic COVID-19 cases from Saturday to 10:00 a.m. on Monday, according to local officials.

All of the new cases were detected in Suihua City in an epidemiological investigation launched after a positive case was reported on Saturday. A total of 2,848 people have been tested and besides the 20 asymptomatic cases, all other results have returned negative. 

Over one million people in the Chinese capital Beijing have received shots of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday morning, Beijing health official Gao Jian told the local newspaper Beijing Youth Daily, adding that the city's overall vaccination efforts are stable and orderly.

Community management is making sure residents have access to fresh food in residential areas and villages closed off to contain a COVID-19 outbreak in Shijiazhuang City, north China's Hebei Province.

Residents in the locked-down communities could only rely on community workers and property management staff to deliver necessities, which were limited in variety and quantity, for several days. But now they can make their own purchases again, either via online delivery from Sunday or from fresh food trucks that come to their neighborhoods.

Liu Wenjing, director of Huaxi Road Subdistrict Office, has been running around the community and buying goods for the residents.

"Since yesterday, I've been using my own car to deliver buns to residents," Liu said on Friday. "From ordering them to purchasing them, this is my third trip to the shops."

The local government has required residents to stay at home for seven more days, and the city will run through another round of testing.

According to officials in charge of the Huaxi Road community, most of the food supplies are sent from wholesale markets.

Wang Lin, manager of the Fantasy Time Residential Building, said they have been reaching out to source more supplies for their residents.

"We reached out to the local government for help, especially with the supply of fresh products," said Wang, adding that "we were also able to find nearby stores willing to sell us fresh products."

District officials get in contact with vendors who are able to purchase supplies. They repackage everything into bags, each with different kinds of vegetables.

Many residents were worried before, but now are relieved that the city is well prepared for the outbreak.

Pan, a resident who came to buy fresh products, said he is confident of getting through the difficult time. 

"I feel people are aware of the pandemic and actively executing preventive measures," he said. "People have been under such measures, or mentally prepared for a situation like this, for quite some time."

Residents seeking to stock up on food during the lockdowns can get help from community management, who will bring paid-for food to them.

The government has said food prices will not rise, adding that home is the safest place to be.

Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) tasked with investigating the origins of the novel coronavirus will arrive in China on January 14, according to China's National Health Commission (NHC).

"After consultation between the two sides, the WHO international experts team on the traceability of the novel coronavirus will visit China on January 14 to conduct joint scientific cooperation with Chinese scientists," according to a statement published on the NHC website on Monday. 

The commission did not provide further details on the scientists' itinerary. 

But earlier, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus introduced at a virtual media briefing that WHO experts will prepare scientific plans with their Chinese counterparts for identifying the zoonotic source of the disease.

Tedros specified that the experts will develop the scope and terms of reference for a WHO-led international mission, whose objective is to advance the understanding of animal hosts for COVID-19 and ascertain how the disease jumped between animals and humans.

"Identifying the origin of emerging viral disease has proven complex in past epidemics in different countries. A well planned series of scientific researches will advance the understanding of animal reservoirs and the route of #COVID19 transmission to humans," Tedros tweeted after the media briefing. 

"This process is an evolving endeavor which may lead to further international scientific research and collaboration globally," Tedros said.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in January, the WHO has dispatched scientists to China twice in an effort to trace the virus origin, first in February and then in July.

A new variant of the coronavirus first detected in the UK has been confirmed in northern Mexico, health officials said on Sunday. 

It's the first time the more contagious variant was found in Mexico, home to the pandemic's fourth-highest death toll globally.

A 56-year-old British man who flew on December 29, 2020 from Mexico City to the city of Matamoros, just south of the U.S.-Mexico border, tested positive for the new strain, both state and national health officials said on Sunday.

The man arrived in the Mexican capital a day earlier on a flight from Amsterdam, said Jose Luis Alomia, head of epidemiology for the national health ministry, at a regular government news conference.

He was asymptomatic upon arriving in Matamoros and is now hospitalized in the city. He was placed on a ventilator on Saturday.

Mexico on Sunday reported 10,003 new confirmed cases and 502 more fatalities, bringing its total to 1,534,039 infections and 133,706 deaths.

(With input from Reuters)

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will receive his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, his office announced, three weeks after his first injection was broadcast live on TV to boost public confidence in the jab. 

The second shot for the 78-year-old will also be administrated in front of the media, his office said without providing further details. 

Biden got his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware on December 21, 2020.

According to U.S. media, Biden will aim to release nearly every available dose of the coronavirus vaccine when he takes office later this month. 

The U.S. Capitol's attending physician warned lawmakers on Sunday that they may have been exposed to someone with a coronavirus infection as they hid from a pro-Donald Trump riot breaching the building last Wednesday, according to reports. 

"Many members of the House community" may have been exposed while "in protective isolation in [a] room located in a large committee hearing space. The time in this room was several hours for some and briefer for others," Brian Monahan, the attending physician of Congress, wrote in an email to all members of Congress and staff.

The Chinese mainland on Sunday recorded 103 new COVID-19 cases – 85 of local transmission and 18 from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Monday.

The domestic cases were reported in north and northeast China: 82 in Hebei Province, two in Liaoning Province and one in Beijing.

Seventy-six new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were recorded, while 506 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No deaths related to COVID-19 were registered on Sunday, while 18 patients were discharged from hospitals. 

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland has reached 87,536, and the death toll stands at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 9,242 (8,423 recoveries, 158 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 828 (720 recoveries, 7 deaths)

Global COVID-19 cases topped 90 million on Sunday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The global case count reached 90,045,410, with a total of 1,931,571 deaths worldwide as of 3:22 p.m. EST (2022 GMT), the CSSE data showed.

The United States reported the most cases and deaths around the world, which stood at 22,293,281 and 373,588, respectively. India recorded 10,450,284 cases, ranking second in the world. Brazil followed India with 8,075,998 cases and the world's second largest death toll of 202,631.

Countries with more than two million cases also include Russia, Britain, France, Turkey, Italy and Spain, while other countries with over 50,000 deaths include India, Mexico, Britain, Italy, France, Russia, Iran and Spain, according to the CSSE tally.

Global cases hit 60 million on November 25, surpassed 70 million on December 11 and hit 80 million on December 26. It took 16 days for the global caseload to climb from 60 million to 70 million, 15 days from 70 million to 80 million and 15 days from 80 million to 90 million.

The United States remains the worst-hit nation, accounting for more than 24 percent of the global cases and over 19 percent of the global deaths. 

Another 54,940 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 3,072,349, according to official figures released Sunday.

Another 563 have died within 28 days of a positive test, bringing the total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain to 81,431, the data showed.

The latest figures were revealed one day after Britain surpassed the grim milestones of 3,000,000 cases and 80,000 deaths on Saturday.

Britain's ambulance service is reportedly facing "unprecedented pressure" as it continues to struggle with the increasing demand due to the new variant of coronavirus, which is said to be up to 70 percent more infectious.

According to Tracy Nicholls, chief executive of College of Paramedics, ambulances are waiting up to nine hours to offload patients at London hospitals.

There was a "hidden risk" as many people in non-life-threatening circumstances waiting for up to 10 hours for an ambulance, she told Sky News.

To keep up with the demand, the Metropolitan Police announced on Sunday that it will deploy 75 officers to drive ambulances in London.

Earlier on Sunday, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned that flexing the lockdown rules "could be fatal," urging the general public to stay at home amid surging coronavirus infections.

"Every time you try to flex the rules that could be fatal" and staying at home was the "most important thing we can do collectively as a society," Hancock told the BBC.

England is currently under the third national lockdown since the pandemic began in the country.

Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan received the first shot of his COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday to become Africa's first head of state to receive the jab.

Ramkalawan received the Chinese-manufactured SinoPharm COVID-19 vaccine in a publicized event in Victoria to kickstart the Indian Ocean archipelago’s mass vaccination drive.

The 59-year-old took the opportunity to rally the country of around 97,000 people to unite in the fight to stop further spread of the virus.

"It's exactly as if I was getting any vaccine," he said, urging Seychellois to get the injection.

Former president Danny Faure also received his first jab alongside the incumbent as a show of his support for the country's fight against the virus.

By Sunday, Seychelles had reported 531 COVID-19 cases with one death.

The commencement of Seychelles' vaccination drive comes a day after Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited the island country as part of his Africa visit.

The country's fight against COVID-19 was boosted with a donation of 100 thousand face masks from the Chinese businesses community earlier this week.

The United States registered a record high of over 310,000 daily COVID-19 cases on Friday, while the country's total caseload surpassed 22 million on Saturday.

A total of 314,093 new cases and 3,623 deaths were reported across the country on Friday, according to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Four people who arrived at Tokyo's Haneda Airport from Brazil earlier this month were infected with a coronavirus variant different from those found in Britain and South Africa, Japanese media reported on Sunday, citing Japan's Health Ministry.

The ministry identified the ages of the four people as teens to adults in their 40s, with all of them having stayed in the state of Amazonas in Brazil.

The four people arrived at the airport on January 2. They tested positive after airport quarantine, said the ministry.

Confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country have reached 288,338 with 3,826 deaths, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent reached 3,021,769 as of Sunday morning, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region recorded 31 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, of which 28 were locally transmitted and three from overseas, said the Center for Health Protection on Sunday. 

The total tally of COVID-19 cases in the city now stands at 9,236.

China's civil aviation regulator announced Sunday that regular passenger flights between China and the UK shall remain suspended even beyond the originally announced date of January 10, to cope with the possible impacts of the coronavirus variant that first appeared in the UK.

The decision has been made based on the requirements of the State Council's joint prevention and control mechanism against COVID-19 as well as relevant laws and regulations, said the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

On December 27, 2020, the CAAC announced that regular passenger flights between China and the UK would be suspended from December 28, 2020 to January 10, 2021, requiring domestic and foreign airlines to facilitate ticket refunds and flight changes.

Shijiazhuang, the capital city of north China's Hebei Province, will initiate a second round of mass nucleic acid testing amid the latest coronavirus outbreak, Meng Xianghong, deputy mayor of Shijiazhuang City announced on Sunday.

The city plans to finish the latest round of testing within two days, added Meng.

China's Hebei Province reported 40 new locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, all in Shijiazhuang City, between midnight and 10 a.m. on Sunday, local authorities said earlier.

A total of 364 people have tested positive for COVID-19 as the first round of mass nucleic acid testing concluded in the cities of Shijiazhuang and Xingtai, local officials said.

As of Saturday, over 13 million residents in the two cities were tested for COVID-19.

According to local health authorities, "patient zero" in this round of the COVID-19 outbreak in Hebei may have been infected before December 15.

The conclusion is based on preliminary results of epidemiological investigations, said Shi Jian from the provincial Center for Disease Prevention and Control at a press conference.

Four more communities in Shijiazhuang, capital city of China's Hebei Province, raised their alert levels to medium on Sunday, after a continuous rise in reported infections.

Shijiazhuang has logged 44 confirmed cases and 13 asymptomatic cases from Saturday as the city battles a flare-up of local infections.

The city now has a total of 13 communities identified as medium-risk zones for COVID-19 and one high-risk area of COVID-19 – Shijiazhuang's Gaocheng District.

Xingtai City in Hebei Province reported two confirmed cases in the past 24 hours. Nangong, a county-level city administered by Xingtai said it will conduct a second round of mass nucleic acid testing for its residents today.

According to epidemiological investigations, many of the cases in Hebei had been linked to gatherings like weddings and funerals.

The Minnesota Department of Health announced on Saturday night that it has confirmed five cases of the more-contagious coronavirus variant that was first detected in the UK, making it the ninth U.S. state to report the variant. 

According to state authorities, the five cases were recorded in the Twin Cities metro area and came from four different counties in the metro area, adding that the onset of their illnesses was between December 16 and December 31.

"It's important to note that this variant strain of the virus has been found in other states in the U.S., so we were expecting to find the virus in Minnesota. Knowing that it is now here does not change our current public health recommendations," said State Epidemiologist Ruth Lynfield.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tracking, as of Friday, at least 63 such variant cases have been reported from eight states: California, Colorado, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut.

More than 18.9 million doses in 39 countries have already been administered, according to Bloomberg.

The Chinese mainland on Saturday recorded 69 new COVID-19 cases – 48 of local transmission and 21 from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Sunday.

The domestic cases were reported in north and northeast China: 46 in Hebei Province, one in Liaoning Province and one in Beijing.

Moreover, 27 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were recorded, while 470 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No deaths related to COVID-19 were registered on Saturday, while 16 patients were discharged from hospitals. 

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China has reached 87,433, and the death toll stands at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 9,211 (8,374 recoveries, 157 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 828 (720 recoveries, 7 deaths)

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip received COVID-19 vaccinations on Saturday, Buckingham Palace said, as the country surpassed three million cases since the pandemic began last year.

"The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have today received COVID-19 vaccinations," a Buckingham Palace spokesman said, in a rare public comment on the private health matters of the long-serving monarch. 

It is understood the queen decided the information should be made public to prevent inaccuracies and speculation. No further details about the vaccinations were released. 

According to BBC citing a royal source, the couple received their vaccinations on Saturday by a household doctor at Windsor Castle, where they have spent much of the pandemic in self-isolation.

The Queen, 94, and Prince Philip, 99, are among around 1.5 million people in the UK to have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine so far.

Britain has hit another two grim milestones in the pandemic on Saturday as total coronavirus cases passed three million and total coronavirus-related deaths topped 80,000 overnight.

Tighter restrictions have been announced earlier this month across the country after the rapid spread of infections due to more contagious virus variants.

Read more:

Boris Johnson tells UK to 'stay at home' in fresh national lockdown

(Cover: Britain's Queen Elizabeth leaves with Prince Philip after a service of thanksgiving for her 90th birthday at St Paul's Cathedral in London, Britain, June 10, 2016. /Reuters)

(With input from agencies)

After seeing the deadliest week since the COVID-19 pandemic started in the U.S., many states are now facing alarming surges in cases from holiday gatherings.

The U.S. reported more than 4,000 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday. Some hospitals around the country are are at risk of being overwhelmed.

Now, public health officials are bracing for the consequences from Wednesday's storming of the U.S. Capitol. 

"You had largely unmasked individuals in a non-distanced fashion, who were all through the Capitol," said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield. He also said it "will probably lead to a significant spreading."

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Shijiazhuang City, the capital of China's northern Hebei province is under lockdown due to rising locally transmitted COVID-19 cases. Mass nucleic acid testing has been conducted in the city. See how residents purchase their groceries under lockdown.

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The number of confirmed COVID-19 infections globally is closing in on the 90 million mark as the number of virus-related deaths has surpassed 1.9 million, according to the latest data from the Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. based institution's latest figures show that there have been 89,027,158 cases and 1,916,503 deaths reported globally since the pandemic began.

The U.S. remains to be the world's hardest-hit country by the virus, having reported 21,879,748 infections and 369,068 deaths.

The country accounts for 24.58 percent of the global infections and 19.26 percent of all the virus-related fatalities.

Its caseload is more than double the number reported by the country with the second-highest virus tally.

India's 10,431,639 cases make it the only other country globally to have registered more than 10 million COVID-19 infections. That figure is accompanied by a death toll of 150,798.

On the other hand, Brazil's 201,460 fatalities make it the only other country globally to have reported more than 200,000 COVID-19 deaths.

Apart from the U.S., Brazil and India, Mexico's 132,069 virus-related deaths make it the only other country globally to have recorded more than 100,000 fatalities.

A total of 18 countries have registered more than one million COVID-19 cases.

UK's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip received their first jabs of COVID-19 vaccinations on Saturday, Buckingham Palace said.

The two have joined around 1.5 million people in the UK to now have had at least one dose of a vaccine so far.

People aged over 80 years old are among high-priority groups which are to be given the vaccines first.

The BBC report that Queen Elizabeth II, 94, and Prince Phillip, 99, have been spending the lockdown in England at their Windsor Castle home after spending a quiet Christmas at their Berkshire residence.

The jabs were administered by a royal household doctor at Windsor Castle.

Reports in the UK note that the Queen decided the information should be made public to prevent inaccuracies and further speculation.

By Saturday, the UK had reported a total of 2,966,244 covid-19 infections and 79,965 deaths, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University.

The number of COVID-19-related deaths in Africa has surpassed the 70,000 mark while infections near three million, as the continent continues its fight to stop the spread of the virus.

According to the latest data from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 70,553 confirmed fatalities by Saturday afternoon, from a total of 2,950,109 infections reported.

South Africa accounts for the biggest number of both the continent's death toll and infections.

It's 1,192,570 confirmed cases account for 40.42 percent of Africa's cases, while its 32,425 deaths represent 45.96 percent of the continent's virus-related fatalities.

Morocco's 450,221 cases are the second-highest number of infections in Africa, and are accompanied by 7,685 deaths.

Other than the two, only five other African countries have recorded more than 100,000 COVID-19 infections; Tunisia (154,903), Egypt (147,810), Ethiopia (127,572), Libya (104,002) and Algeria (101,657).

The Africa CDC data also showed that by Saturday, some 2,414,219 patients had successfully recovered from COVID-19.

China's Hebei Province is arranging for plasma donated by recovered COVID-19 patients in Wuhan to be sent to help treat local patients in serious condition, local authorities said at a press briefing on Saturday afternoon. The blood plasma, taken from patients who have recovered from COVID-19, usually contains antibodies that may help severe patients battle the disease. 

As of Saturday, the province has reported 139 new coronavirus cases, among whom seven are critically ill. These seven cases are mostly senior patients with underlying diseases, such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes, said Duan Yunbo, deputy director of the provincial health commission of Hebei.

The plasma to be transferred from Wuhan to treat the patients in Hebei may not be new because there has been a limited number of COVID-19 patients in China since the epidemic was largely put under control around May, Dr. Li Tianbao from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio told CGTN. 

He explained that the antibodies can be maintained for half a year if the blood was stored at the right temperature.  

Multiple studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of the treatment. The most recent one, published in the medical journal The New England Journal of Medicine on January 6, concluded that an early dose of blood plasma from recovered patients helps prevent the progression of the disease to a more severe stage, and the antibodies in it are responsible for the therapeutic effect. 

During the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan last winter, convalescent plasma was used to treat severe patients in Jinyintan hospital, showing positive effects. Since then, Chinese health authorities have encouraged people who recovered from COVID-19 to donate their blood plasma to help more patients.

The therapy has also been adopted in other countries, including the United States and Brazil. 

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region recorded 59 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, of which 53 were locally transmitted and six from overseas, said the Center for Health Protection on Saturday. 

The total tally of COVID-19 cases in the city now stands at 9,205.

North China's Hebei Province reported two new COVID-19 cases from midnight to 10 a.m. BJT on Saturday, Hebei health authorities said.

Hebei Province has reported a total of 139 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases since last Saturday, with 197 asymptomatic cases.

The first round of nucleic acid testing in residents in Shijiazhuang and Xingtai cities has been completed.

As of Friday, 10,251,875 people in Shijiazhuang had received nucleic acid tests, of which 354 tested positive, and 15 of the 6,744,455 people tested in Xingtai were positive, according to local authorities.

As of 8 a.m. BJT on Saturday, a total of 11,708 people were undergoing quarantine in 120 sites in Shijiazhuang City.

China is ready to welcome a World Health Organization (WHO) expert team to investigate the origin of COVID-19, a senior Chinese health official said on Saturday.

China and the WHO have reached a consensus on specific arrangements of the investigation with four video conferences, Zeng Yixin, deputy head of the National Health Commission, told a press conference, adding that Chinese experts are waiting for their WHO counterparts.

Chinese residents will not have to pay for voluntary COVID-19 vaccinations, officials said at a press conference in Beijing on Saturday.

COVID-19 vaccination fees in China – including the vaccine cost and service fees – will be jointly borne by the medical insurance fund and the government reserves, Li Tao, deputy head of China's National Healthcare Security Administration said.

Herd immunity against the novel coronavirus requires a large proportion of the population to be vaccinated, therefore, extraordinary measures are needed to address the cost of vaccination, said Li.

The free vaccination scheme "is conducive to maximally safeguarding the fundamental interests of the people," and it fully demonstrates China's commitment to putting people's health and life first, Li added.

The country has administered over 9 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, said Zeng Yixin, deputy head of the National Health Commission.

Since the country officially rolled out vaccinations on December 15, nearly 7.5 million doses have been administered to key populations nationwide, said Zeng. These include workers in the cold-chain logistics sector, custom inspectors, health professionals, employees at government agencies and in public service sectors, community workers, as well as people who are to go abroad. 

Over 1.6 million people in high-risk groups had previously been inoculated.

"The vaccinations further prove the safety of China-developed COVID-19 vaccines," said Zeng.

Free vaccines to the general public will be provided in a comprehensive and orderly manner, he said, after the country recently granted conditional marketing authorization to a Sinopharm-developed vaccine.

Supportive of WHO's visit to China for virus origin-tracing

China has always attached great importance to tracing the origin of the novel coronavirus since the very beginning, said Zeng, adding "we are very supportive of the World Health Organization (WHO) to organize an expert panel to conduct the origin-tracing work in Wuhan, China."

Four video meetings were held between experts from both sides, during which China had full and scientific discussions with the WHO panel. And an agreement has been reached on specific arrangements for the investigation, said Zeng.

Chinese experts are ready for the WHO expert team's arrival, and relevant Chinese expert groups have been arranged to coordinate with the investigation, he said. "As soon as the WHO experts complete the procedures and finalize the schedule, we will go to Wuhan to join in and carry out the investigation work."

Zeng stressed that China holds an active, open and supportive position on the WHO visit, and hopes the investigation will have some new information to further deepen the understanding of the origin of the virus and help better prevent and control the highly infectious disease in the future.

Read more:

Chinese gov't in consultation with WHO on sending experts to China

Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province, has suspended citywide subway operation starting Saturday after entering "wartime mode" against COVID-19. 

On Friday, the city recorded 14 new locally transmitted confirmed cases and 16 new asymptomatic cases.

The Chinese mainland on Friday recorded 33 new COVID-19 cases – 17 of local transmission and 16 from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Saturday.

The domestic cases were reported in north and northeast China: 14 in Hebei Province and three in Liaoning Province.

Moreover, 38 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were recorded, while 483 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No deaths related to COVID-19 were registered on Friday, while 19 patients were discharged from hospitals. 

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China has reached 87,364, and the death toll stands at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 9,152 (8,307 recoveries, 155 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 825 (714 recoveries, 7 deaths)

There would be a more transmissible variant of the coronavirus that evolved in the United States and is fueling spread of the virus, according to the White House coronavirus task force.

The new strain, in addition to the variant found in Britain, is already spreading in communities and may be 50 percent more transmissible, according to a report obtained by U.S. media that the task force issued to states on January 3.

The U.S. reported more than 4,000 COVID-19 deaths in a single day for the first time, breaking a record set just one day earlier.

The tally from Johns Hopkins University shows the U.S. had 4,085 deaths Thursday.

Britain and France on Friday approved Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for use, according to authorities.

Britain's medical regulator said it had agreed to purchase an additional 10 million doses of the shot with a possible rollout in the spring. 
 
Three COVID-19 vaccines have now been approved for use in Britain, with Pfizer-BioNTech's shot and one developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca already being rolled out.

Following an EU approval, France's national health authority said that the Moderna vaccine will now be used for people 18 and older, clearing the way for a second option in the country's inoculation campaign.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan declared the ongoing COIVD-19 outbreak a "major incident" in the British capital on Friday, saying hospitals could be overwhelmed if people do not stay at home.

"Today I have declared a major incident in London because the threat this virus poses to our city is at crisis point," he said. 

"One in 30 Londoners now has COVID-19. If we do not take immediate action now, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die."

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region recorded 45 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, of which 42 were locally transmitted and three imported, said the Center for Health Protection on Friday. 

The total tally of COVID-19 cases in the city now stands at 9,153.

Head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday the European Union had reached a deal with Pfizer-BioNTech for 300 million additional doses of their COVID-19 vaccines, doubling the amount of doses from the producer.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Friday received his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, making him the first Singaporean Cabinet member to be inoculated.

"So I took the opportunity to have my own jab this morning and now I'm done – 30 minutes waited, nothing happened," he said. "I've got my card, and the appointment to come back in three weeks' time. It's painless, it's effective. And it's important."

The prime minister was vaccinated along with Singapore General Hospital (SGH) staff at the official launch of vaccinations for healthcare workers, according to local media.

The United States counted a record number of daily coronavirus deaths Thursday at nearly 4,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

The 3,998 deaths were recorded over the 24 hour period ending at 8:30 p.m. local time (0130 GMT Friday), during which the U.S. notched 265,246 new infections, according to the university's data.  

Australia will require all international travelers to test negative for COVID-19 before boarding flights to the country, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, as it tightened travel rules to stop the spread of the coronavirus variant first detected in the UK. 

Australia would also reduce by half the cap on international arrivals to some states until February 15, Morrison said.

A coronavirus vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech was 78 percent effective in a late-stage Brazilian trial, with no severe COVID-19 cases occurred among those volunteers, researchers said on Thursday.

Dimas Covas, director of the Brazilian biomedical center Butantan, Sinovac's research and production partner, said detailed results were being submitted to health regulator Anvisa as part of a request for emergency use of the vaccine.

(With input from Reuters)

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Friday the government would liaise with other prefectures and check whether the state of emergency over the coronavirus for the greater Tokyo region should be extended to those areas.

The governors of Osaka and Aichi are expected to request being added to the emergency declaration as infections surge in their prefectures.

The Japanese government declared a state of emergency for capital Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures on Thursday, which starts on Friday and will run through February 7.

(With input from Reuters)

All international arrivals to England, including UK nationals, will have to present a negative COVID-19 test result before departing to help curb the new coronavirus variant, the government announced on Friday.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that from next week, "inbound passengers arriving by boat, plane or train will have to take a test up to 72 hours before departing the country they are in."

The Chinese mainland on Thursday reported 53 new COVID-19 cases – 37 cases of local transmission and 16 from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Friday.

The locally transmitted cases were reported in north and northeast China: 33 in Hebei Province, two in Liaoning Province and one each in Beijing and Heilongjiang Province.

Moreover, 57 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were recorded, while 458 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No death related to COVID-19 was registered on Thursday, while 17 patients were discharged from hospitals. 

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China has reached 87,331, and the death toll stands at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 9,107 (8,258 recoveries, 154 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 822 (708 recoveries, 7 deaths)

The number of coronavirus-related deaths in Brazil surpassed 200,000 on Thursday, according to the country's latest official figures.

The Latin American country has registered 1,524 fatalities over the past 24 hours, according to data released by the health ministry. Its total tallies now stand at 8 million infections and 200,498 deaths.  

"In the name of President Jair Bolsonaro, the Health Ministry and all the federal government, we want to offer our solidarity to every family that lost loved ones," said the health ministry in a statement on Thursday.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised that every care home resident in the country will be vaccinated this month.

A full deployment plan will be published on Monday, as the UK races against time to vaccinate as many people as possible and bear down on the new COVID-19 variant.

The government aims to vaccinate 13.9 million people in the top four most vulnerable groups by mid-February.

Johnson told a news conference on Thursday that the arrival of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine, which can be stored at room temperature, means the government can "accelerate the pace of vaccination."

He said: "We're using that vaccine in care homes for the first time today and by the end of the month we hope to have offered every elderly care home resident a vaccine."

From Thursday, the AstraZeneca vaccine is being given to people inside doctors' surgeries. For the first three days it was only being administered from hospitals.

The UK is now using two vaccines, with the Pfizer-BioNTech version being administered to patients since December 8.

CLICK: STUDY SHOWS THEY CAN POSITIVELY AFFECT WELLBEING

There are also moves to fast-forward regulatory approval for a third vaccine, from Janssen, the Belgium arm of U.S. pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson. This vaccine only requires a single dose. The UK has ordered 30 million doses of it, with the option of a further 22 million.

The Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines require two doses. The UK government has decided to delay the second dose for up to three months until more vaccine becomes available. It argues that it's better to vaccinate as many people as possible with the first dose to get ahead of the new variant of the virus.

Next week, the government is opening seven mass-vaccination centers, including one at the ExCel exhibition center in London. Hospitals, doctors' surgeries and pharmacies will also give people the vaccine.

According to UK Health Minister Matt Hancock: "We're working with the companies, both Pfizer and, of course, AstraZeneca to increase the [vaccine] supply."

The Ministry of Defence has been called in to assist in the planning and distribution of the vaccine.

Meanwhile, a leaked briefing by England's director of the National Health Service warns its best-case scenario is that London's hospitals will be overwhelmed in less than two weeks.

NHS England's London medical director Vin Diwakar made the remarks to the medical directors of London's hospital trusts on a Zoom call.

CEO of the National Health Service Simon Stevens, added: "There are now 50 percent more COVID-19 patients in hospitals across the UK than there were at the peak of the pandemic's first wave."

The UK has recorded a total of 2,836,801 positive cases of COVID-19, with 77,346 deaths.

Africa's total number of confirmed COVID-19 infections reached 2,917,626 on Thursday with a death toll of 69,911, according to the latest data from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

The continent continues to see a steady surge in its caseload as various countries battle new waves of infections.

South Africa is the hardest-hit African country by the pandemic, having reported 1,149,591 infections and 31,368 deaths. Both figures are more than double the numbers reported by the countries that have reported the second-highest caseload and fatalities.

Morocco has reported the second-highest caseload, though its 447,081 confirmed infections still dwarf the number of cases in South Africa.

As the continent continues its fight to stop the spread of the virus, countries are now shifting gears to the acquisition and distribution of vaccines.

The Africa CDC data also showed that the continent had recorded 2,397,615 successful recoveries as of Thursday evening.

(With input from agencies) 

The UK on Thursday reported 1,162 COVID-19 deaths, the second highest total for daily deaths in the country.

According to statistics, the only day with higher death toll was April 21 when 1,224 deaths were reported. The figure is also more than 100 from the one reported on Wednesday (1,041).

At the same time, the government reported 52,618 new confirmed cases. That number is the lowest daily total since Wednesday last week when the government reported 50,023 cases.

The news came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that close to 1.5 million people had received their first vaccine dose.

1.26 million of those people are in England, 113,000 in Scotland, 49,000 in Wales and 46,000 in Northern Ireland.

"Within two to three weeks, all of them will have a very considerable degree of immunity. It is thanks to the arrival of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine which can be stored at room temperature," Johnson said.

Johnson, who spoke at Downing Street, pledged to have every elderly care home resident offered a coronavirus vaccine by the end of January.

He also pledged to ensure that vaccines were available to everyone within a radius of 10 miles.

"This a national challenge on a scale like nothing we have seen before and it will require an unprecedented national effort and, of course, there will be difficulties…appointments will be changed," Johnson said.

A full vaccine deployment plan will be published on Monday, Johnson added, together with daily updates on progress made.

(With input from agencies)

Two risk clusters of the mutant coronavirus variant sweeping Britain have been detected in France, the health ministry said on Thursday. 

The UK last month sounded the alarm over the variant, which experts say is much more contagious than the original coronavirus. 

The clusters were located in the western French region of Brittany, and in the Paris region, the ministry said in a statement. 

A total of 19 cases of infections with the variant have been confirmed in France, as well as three cases of people infected with a different new strain which was first detected in South Africa, it said. 

France on Wednesday recorded 25,379 new virus infections in the previous 24 hours, up from 20,489 the day before. 

A total of 66,565 people have died from the virus in France, the health authorities said.

(With input from agencies)

Germany reported more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths within 24 hours for the second consecutive day, bringing the death toll in the country to 37,607, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) announced on Thursday.

Thursday's RKI data showed that 1,070 people had succumbed to the disease in Germany within one day, compared to Wednesday's figure of 1,019 COVID-19 deaths. The highest daily death toll was 1,129 recorded on Dec. 30.

Thursday's figures also showed that another 26,391 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the total of confirmed coronavirus cases to more than 1.8 million.

The RKI said that there may have been delays in testing and reporting over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

On Tuesday, German federal and state governments had agreed to extend the measures against COVID-19 until the end of January, as well as to impose even stricter contact restrictions.

According to the German government, the three months ahead will still require considerable patience and discipline on everyone's part, because winter months favor the virus spread and the vaccination will only have a dampening effect when a larger part of the younger population has also been vaccinated.

Germany launched its vaccination campaign at the end of last month, with priority given to people aged over 80, people in elderly and care facilities, and frontline health care workers.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in Germany and some other countries with the already authorized coronavirus vaccines.

Meanwhile, 235 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 63 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Jan. 6.

Famous Russian doctor and television presenter Alexander Myasnikov said on Wednesday that he agreed with China denying that the novel coronavirus originated in the country, Sputnik reported.

Myasnikov stated in his post on Telegram channel that the novel coronavirus should be understood as a natural phenomenon.

Thailand will get its first lot of COVID-19 vaccines from China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd next month, allowing the country in the middle of a resurgence of the coronavirus outbreak to begin inoculating people with the highest risks for infections.

Thailand ordered two million doses, with the first 200,000 doses coming in February, 800,000 in March, and another one million in April, according to the health ministry.

Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province, has found 11 more COVID-19 positive cases in its citywide nucleic acid testing on Thursday, local authorities said at a press conference.

The city had collected samples from over 6.1 million people, with 2,416,695 of them had sent for testing, said Meng Xianghong, deputy mayor of Shijiazhuang.

All personnel and vehicles in Shijiazhuang City are not allowed to leave the region due to the latest outbreak, said Meng.

The city reported 50 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 67 new asymptomatic cases on Wednesday, said local health authorities. 

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Wednesday recorded 33 new COVID-19 cases, including 29 locally transmitted, the city's Center for Health Protection (CHP) said Thursday.

Among the new local infections, five cases are of unknown origin, the CHP said.

Japan declared a state of emergency for capital Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Thursday.

"The nationwide, rapid spread of the new coronavirus is feared to have a great impact on people's lives and the economy. Based on that, we are issuing a state of emergency," Suga said at a meeting of the government's virus taskforce.

The emergency state would take effect on Friday and run through February 7, Suga said. 

The Chinese mainland on Wednesday reported 63 new COVID-19 cases – 52 cases of local transmission and 11 from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Thursday.

The locally transmitted cases were reported in north and northeast China: 51 in Hebei Province and one in Liaoning Province.

Moreover, 79 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were recorded, while 423 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No death related to COVID-19 was registered on Wednesday, while 21 patients were discharged from hospitals. 

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China has reached 87,278, and the death toll stands at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 9,074 (8,201 recoveries, 154 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 819 (700 recoveries, 7 deaths)

The Omani health ministry on Wednesday reported the first case of a new coronavirus strain first detected in the UK. The individual is a foreigner with permanent residency who recently arrived from Britain.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) plans to start manufacturing Sinopharm's coronavirus vaccines and also buy millions of doses from the company, the country's Ministry of Health and Prevention announced Tuesday.

The announcement came after the UAE approved China's Sinopharm vaccine for public use last month.

Earlier, late-stage clinical results confirmed Sinopharm's vaccine having 86 percent efficacy against the coronavirus. Over 31,000 volunteers have been enrolled for the trials, according to the UAE government.

The Gulf nation has administered at least 826,301 doses so far, covering eight percent of the country's total population, said Farida Al Hosani, spokesperson for the UAE Healthcare Sector, on her Twitter.

The country aims to vaccinate more than 50 percent of its people during the first quarter of 2021, she added.

The country seeks to achieve herd immunity later this year by vaccinating as many as 70 percent of its residents, Bloomberg reported, citing an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper.

Sinopharm has supplied three million doses to the UAE. 

"According to preliminary feedback from UAE, emergency use shows that Sinopharm CNBG's COVID-19 vaccine is safe in large-scale use and has significantly reduced the disease in vaccinated people," the company announced Tuesday.

The UAE authorized the emergency use of the Sinopharm-developed vaccine for frontline health workers in September.

Ministers and senior officials who received the shot include the UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.

On December 22, UAE started offering free COVID-19 inoculations to all its citizens and residents. The vaccination is available at public and private clinics, as well as field hospitals in the UAE.

(Cover: A booth displaying a COVID-19 vaccine from Sinopharm. /Reuters)

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is in self-isolation after having been in contact with a member of his Civil House who was tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the Presidency of the Republic's website announced on Wednesday.

Guangdong has isolated and detected one case of a coronavirus variant that had been spreading rapidly in South Africa, according to local health authorities on Wednesday. 

The case is a 55-year-old South African pilot who tested positive on December 8 while entering Guangdong's capital city from Singapore. Genomic sequencing of the virus on Tuesday indicated it was the same as the South African variant discovered first in mid-October last year.  

Guangdong had previously discovered a case of the coronavirus variant from the UK last Saturday.

The novel coronavirus found in Xingtai City in north China's Hebei Province is highly similar to those imported from Europe, according to gene sequencing results, a local disease control official told a press briefing on Wednesday night.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of Hebei Province on Sunday delivered the nucleic acid test samples of three infections to the national CDC for gene sequencing tests. The samples turned out to be related to the strain from Europe, the official said.

The CDC departments via origin-tracing work found that the virus detected in Xingtai is not a local virus, but imported from overseas. The virus found in Xingtai's Nangong City was highly similar to that found in Shijiazhuang City. The cases in Nangong were epidemiologically related to those in Shijiazhuang, Ren Weihong, director of Xingtai CDC, said at the press conference.

Meanwhile, according to a China CDC Weekly report on Wednesday, genomic sequencing suggested that two infection cases in Shijiazhuang and Xingtai "likely resulted from the same origin" which may come from Russia.

"The sequencing results indicated that the genomic characteristics of the Hebei strains differed from recent strains detected in several COVID-19 epidemics in China and were unrelated to recent variants discovered in the United Kingdom," said the report.

However, after accessing the public GISAID and GenBank, the report pointed out that "three Russian strains detected in July were found to share the 10 variation sites with the two Hebei strains," indicating that the strains found in the two Hebei cities may have originated from those found in Russia.

As of Wednesday, Xingtai City has logged six confirmed infections and two asymptomatic cases, and the authorities said some are cluster cases.

The city has launched a mass nucleic acid testing for its residents starting Wednesday morning and plans to complete the test within three days.

Seven more people have tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, Deputy Mayor Meng Xianghong told a press briefing. 

The seven positive cases were found after nearly two million samples were collected from the city's mass testing campaign.

The testing started in the early hours of Wednesday and about 30 percent of the swabs were tested by Wednesday afternoon.

Following the regional outbreak of infections in the city, the Hebei Health Commission dispatched 1,000 medical personnel from other cities for support, with another 2,000 to be sent tomorrow. 

Shijiazhuang has halted in-person classes and gatherings, as well as certain businesses due to the resurgence of infections. 

From January 2 to 5, a total of 33 confirmed cases and 81 asymptomatic cases were found in the city.

The Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Wednesday that it has authorized Moderna's coronavirus vaccine, the second vaccine approved by the EU medicine watchdog after the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. 

"EMA has recommended granting a conditional marketing authorization for COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 in people from 18 years of age," it said in a statement.

South Korea will continue to bar direct flights from Britain for another two weeks, in a stepped-up effort to curb the more infectious coronavirus variant first detected in the UK, according to the country's news agency Yonhap on Wednesday.

Health authorities have confirmed a total of 11 cases of the new strain discovered in Britain and one case of a variant detected in South Africa.

Indonesia recorded its biggest daily rise in COVID-19 infections on Wednesday with 8,854 new cases, bringing the total number to 788,402, according to data from the country's COVID-19 task force.

It also reported 187 new deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 23,296. 

Indonesia has reported the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in Southeast Asia.

Japan will declare a month-long emergency in Tokyo and surrounding areas to tackle a surge in coronavirus cases from Saturday until February 7, broadcaster Asahi TV reported.

Japan's capital recorded a record number of daily coronavirus cases on Wednesday, with at least 1,591 new infections.

An inactivated COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm, with an efficacy rate of 79.34 percent, has become the country's first coronavirus jab to get conditional market approval for public use last week. 

The vaccine, developed by Sinopharm's subsidiary – China National Biotec Group (CNBG) – has proven to be effective and safe in large-scale clinical trials in a dozen countries, according to health officials at a press briefing on December 31. (link in Chinese) 

The vaccine's efficacy rate of 79.34 percent is based on interim results of phase III clinic trials that covered more than 60,000 participants from 125 countries, Wu Yonglin, a senior executive at Sinopharm, said at the conference. Detailed data of the trials will be released at a later date and published in scientific journals, according to Wu. 

While many people cheered for the vaccine's go-ahead, some expressed doubt whether the 79 percent efficacy rate is sufficient at a time when U.S. drugmakers Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna have each said their coronavirus vaccines are around 95 percent effective. 

Two other global vaccine frontrunners also reported different data. Russia said its Sputnik V vaccine is 92 percent effective, while Britain's AstraZeneca reported an average efficacy rate of 70 percent. All of these vaccines have won official approval for mass inoculation in different countries. 

What is vaccine efficacy?   

Vaccine efficacy measures how well a vaccine works in preventing inoculated people from getting infected by a disease in controlled clinical trials, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).  

It measures the reduction in disease incidence in a vaccinated group compared with an unvaccinated group. For example, if a vaccine has an efficacy rate of 80 percent, it means people injected with the vaccine are 80 percent protected from getting infected, compared with those who are completely vulnerable without it. 

However, there is a difference between efficacy rates obtained in clinical trials and effectiveness – the real-world protection rate of a vaccine when it is rolled out. 

Generally speaking, a vaccine's real-world effectiveness tends to be slightly lower than its efficacy, because of multiple influencing factors, such as how an individual's immune system responds, whether the vaccine was stored at the correct temperature, and whether people stick to the optimum dosing schedule and timetable. 

The 50 percent efficacy threshold    

According to the WHO, not a single vaccine can be 100 percent effective. But medical regulators do have an efficacy threshold for vaccines before they can be granted market access. 

Both the WHO and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommend COVID-19 vaccines with an efficacy rate above 50 percent, which is also the threshold required by China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). 

So far, all the vaccines that have been given the green light for mass inoculation in different countries reported efficacy rates well above the threshold. 

Li Zhongming, a Chinese vaccine expert, told Science and Technology Daily that vaccines developed with different technical approaches would have different efficacy rates. As long as a vaccine has an efficacy rate above 60 percent, it is good to go. 

He also said that at least 60 percent of the whole population needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.  

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Tuesday recorded 25 new COVID-19 cases, including 22 cases of local transmission, the city's Center for Health Protection (CHP) said Wednesday.

Among the new local infections, seven cases are of unknown origin, the CHP said.

China is still in consultations with the World Health Organization (WHO) on a trip for WHO experts to visit the country and examine the origins of COVID-19, said Hua Chunying, a spokesperson from the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

In a positive and constructive manner, China recently has been in close communication with the WHO on the international expert panel's trip to China for cooperation on tracing the origin of the novel coronavirus, said Hua.

At present, the global pandemic situation is still very grave, and China is also making all-out efforts to prevent and control the epidemic with its health and epidemic prevention departments and experts devoting themselves to intense containment work.

"In order to support international anti-pandemic cooperation, China has overcome difficulties, accelerated preparations at home, and tried its best to create favorable conditions for the international panel's visit for origin tracing cooperation in China," said the spokesperson. "WHO knows that clearly."

Origin-tracing is a very complicated issue, Hua said. "To ensure the smooth progress of the work of the international panel in China, necessary procedures should be fulfilled and relevant specific arrangements should be made. At present, the two sides are still negotiating on this."

China has always adopted an open, transparent and responsible attitude on the issue of tracing the origin of the novel coronavirus, and taken the lead in carrying out scientific cooperation with WHO with the purpose of promoting international research on origin-tracing, stressed Hua.

In February and July 2020, Beijing invited WHO experts to carry out cooperation on origin-tracing in China and formulated its part of a global scientific cooperation plan on origin-tracing.

The Chinese side reached an agreement on the members of the international expert group last October, and since then experts from both sides have maintained frequent interactions.

Four video meetings were held on October 30, December 3, December 10 and December 18, respectively. Chinese experts shared the outcomes of the origin-tracing efforts in a scientific and candid manner, said Hua. Bilateral cooperation has made positive progress.

Shenyang City of northeast China's Liaoning Province reported one new local infection of COVID-19 on Wednesday, the provincial health commission said.

The Health Commission of Shandong Province has confirmed its first coronavirus variant case imported from the UK on Tuesday.  

The case reported in Qingdao has been analyzed based on the whole gene sequence, which showed to be 99.99 percent homologous with the recent variant strain founded in the UK. The analysis has been completed by Shandong Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Shandong has strict closed-loop management on admitting inbound travelers," said Lei Jie, chief expert and physician of public health emergency at Shandong Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This means if any travelers coming from outside of China test positive when quarantined in hotels, they will be admitted in designated hospitals for treatment right away, ensuring no contact with the outside. 

Lei also added there is no need for the public to worry because it is impossible for positive cases detected among inbound travelers during their quarantine – both confirmed and asymptomatic – to be discharged to their communities before they recover.  

Shandong is the third region to detect the new variant strain in China after Shanghai and Guangdong.  

As of Tuesday, several countries have found COVID-19 cases with a variant strain including the UK, the U.S., South Africa, Nigeria, Japan, Denmark, Netherlands and Australia. 
 

Indonesia will begin two weeks of increased coronavirus restrictions in parts of its most populous island of Java and the resort island of Bali from January 11 to support hospitals and reduce fatality rates, a minister said on Wednesday.

Airlangga Hartarto, Indonesia's chief economic minister, said some of the measures include changes to opening hours for malls and limited capacity at restaurants and places of worship.

The 63rd Grammy Awards ceremony has been postponed until March because of COVID-19.

The annual show would shift from its original January 31 broadcast to March 14, according to a joint statement released on Tuesday by the Recording Academy and CBS, which broadcasts the event. The statement said the decision was reached "after thoughtful conversations with health experts, our host and artists scheduled to appear."

Beyonce, Dua Lipa, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and rapper Roddy Ricch are the top nominees at the normally star-studded gala. "The Daily Show" host and comedian Trevor Noah was set to host the 2021 show, and it wasn't immediately clear if that was still the plan.

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India's COVID-19 death toll reached 150,000 on Wednesday, according to the latest data released by the country's health ministry.

North China's Hebei Province reported 20 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, 19 in Shijiazhuang City and one in Xingtai City, local health authorities said on Wednesday.

As many as 43 new asymptomatic infections were also reported in the province, including 41 in Shijiazhuang and two in Xingtai, the authorities said.

A total of 378 confirmed cases had been reported in Hebei as of Tuesday, while 78 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.

The Shijiazhuang's bus passenger terminal temporarily suspended operations due to the pandemic, the officials said in a statement on Wednesday. 

The Chinese mainland on Tuesday reported 32 new COVID-19 cases – 23 cases of local transmission and nine from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Wednesday.

The locally transmitted cases were reported in north and northeast China: 20 in Hebei Province and one each in Liaoning Province, Heilongjiang Province and Beijing.

Moreover, 64 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were recorded, while 360 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No death related to COVID-19 was registered on Tuesday, while 21 patients were discharged from hospitals. 

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China has reached 87,215, and the death toll stands at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 9,049 (8,127 recoveries, 153 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 817 (697 recoveries, 7 deaths)

East China's Shandong Province recorded its first coronavirus variant case on Monday, said local health authorities.

It is detected that the new variant is highly similar to that of the one recently reported in Britain.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday postponed a post-Brexit trip to India this month after the COVID-19 pandemic worsened in Britain, Downing Street said. 

"The prime minister spoke to Prime Minister Modi this morning to express his regret that he will be unable to visit India later this month as planned," a spokesperson said, blaming a fast-spreading variant of the virus.

(With input from AFP)

Armenia's President Armen Sarkissian has tested positive for COVID-19, local media Public Radio of Armenia reported, citing the president's office on Tuesday.

Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education on Tuesday announced the first case of new coronavirus variant in the country.

Health minister Saeed Namaki said the patient had been hospitalized in an Iranian private hospital over the past weeks and confirmed to be infected with the new virus strain.

North China's Hebei Province has entered "wartime mode" after 19 confirmed locally transmitted coronavirus cases and 40 asymptomatic cases were reported between January 2 and 4, local authorities said on Tuesday.

Experts from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Health Commission have arrived in Shijiazhuang City and Xingtai City to curb the latest outbreak, Feng Zijian, deputy director of the Chinese CDC said on Tuesday.

According to Feng, the confirmed cases in Hebei have a strain from overseas, probably from Europe.

A citywide nucleic acid testing program will be conducted in Shijiazhuang City starting from Wednesday, the city's government spokesperson said Tuesday.

All kindergartens, primary and middle schools in Shijiazhuang City will suspend face-to-face classes starting from Wednesday, the municipal education bureau said.

Britain on Tuesday announced a new 4.6 billion-pound ($6.2 billion) support package for businesses hit by renewed COVID-19 lockdowns across the country.

Finance minister Rishi Sunak said retail, hospitality and leisure companies would be able to claim new one-off grants worth up to 9,000 pounds to help them through the first months of 2021.

(With input from agencies)

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Monday recorded 32 new COVID-19 cases, including 31 cases of local transmission, the city's Center for Health Protection (CHP) said Tuesday.

Among the new infections, nine cases are of unknown origin, the CHP said.

Northeast China's Liaoning Province reported one new asymptomatic COVID-19 case in Shenyang City between midnight and noon on Tuesday, according to local health authorities.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the province stands at 372. Thirty-one asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.

Indonesia will begin a mass COVID-19 vaccination program on January 13 with President Joko Widodo receiving the first shot, local media reported on Tuesday citing the health minister.

The Japanese government is planning to declare a state of emergency for Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures as early as Thursday, reported local media. 

The state of emergency would be an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

According to Kyodo News Agency, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he will make a decision on Thursday on a plan to declare another state of emergency.

The schedule was announced by Suga at an executive meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Tuesday. The government plans to put the declaration in place for about one month, reported Kyodo citing a government official, adding it is expected to take effect on Thursday or the following day.

Leaders from Tokyo and its neighboring prefectures have agreed to jointly ask residents to refrain from non-essential trips outside their homes and call on dining and drinking establishments to close by 8 p.m., according to the report. 

Read more: 

Suga considers declaring a state of emergency for Tokyo area

(Cover: People wearing masks walk in Shibuya shopping district in Tokyo, Japan, January 2, 2021. /CFP)

Mexico on Monday approved the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use against the pandemic, the deputy foreign minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez said on social media. 

Mexico's health ministry on Monday reported 6,464 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 544 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 1,455,219 infections and 127,757 deaths.

The real number of infected people and deaths is likely significantly higher than the official count, the health ministry has said.

A region in Shijiazhuang City in north China's Hebei Province has raised its coronavirus risk level to high, local authorities said on Tuesday after the city reported 11 new COVID-19 cases on Monday.

Thirty new asymptomatic infections were reported in the city on Monday, the authorities said.

U.S. drugmaker Moderna Inc. said on Monday that Israel's health ministry had authorized its COVID-19 vaccine, marking the vaccine's third regulatory authorization and the first outside North America.

"Ministry of Health of Israel has secured six million doses and first deliveries are expected to begin in January," Moderna said in a statement.

Moderna has received authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine in the United States and Canada and additional authorizations are currently under review in the European Union, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The Chinese mainland on Monday reported 33 new COVID-19 cases – 17 cases of local transmission and 16 from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday.

The locally transmitted cases were reported in north and northeast China: 14 in Hebei Province, two in Liaoning Province and one in Beijing.

Moreover, 37 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 318 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No death related to COVID-19 was registered on Monday, while 12 patients were discharged from hospitals. 

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China has reached 87,183, and the death toll stands at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 9,017 (8,055 recoveries, 153 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 815 (696 recoveries, 7 deaths)

Brazil has confirmed its first two cases of the new variant of coronavirus that was initially discovered in the United Kingdom, Sao Paulo state's health secretariat said on Monday.

One of the people infected was a 25-year-old woman from the city of Sao Paulo in contact with travelers who had been to Britain, according to a statement from the state government. The other patient was another Sao Paulo resident, a 34-year-old man who had contact with her.

New York State has confirmed its first case of the new variant of coronavirus that was initially discovered in the United Kingdom, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday.

The case was identified in a 60-year-old man from Saratoga County who had no travel history, Cuomo said. 

The man, who is now recovering, worked at a jewelry store where three other people have also tested positive for COVID-19. The state is investigating whether those cases were caused by the new strain.

As COVID-19 cases continue to climb in the U.S., public health officials are on the lookout for a new strain of the coronavirus that’s believed to be more contagious than the version that’s caused more than 350,000 deaths in the country already.

The new COVID-19 variant is believed to have originated in the U.K. and has now turned up in three U.S. states. 

CGTN’s Hendrik Sybrandy reports.

The very first case of a new coronavirus strain in the U.S. turned up in a remote part of Colorado, in the town of Simla, population 600, at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home.

“The individual is a man in his 20s who was working in Simla, not recently traveled,” said Jared Polis, Colorado governor. “He's currently recovering in isolation, mild symptoms.”

He’s one of two Colorado National Guard members who were sent to help with staffing at the facility. The other Guardsman is suspected of having the same infection. All two dozen-plus residents of the home had already tested positive for COVID-19.

"We have an extensive investigation underway to identify all contacts the cases may have had in the two weeks leading up to their deployment, as well as any other contacts outside of the facility they may have had during their deployment,” said Dr. Rachel Herlihy, Colorado State Epidemiologist.

The B.1.1.7 COVID variant was first identified in the U.K., is believed to be responsible for more than 60 percent of cases there and has now spread to some three dozen countries. The strain is more transmissible than the original virus but it’s not clear why.

“It could be because the virus replicates faster and so you get a higher viral load, which means you're more infectious,” said Peter Horby with the New and Emerging Respiratory Threat Advisory Group.

But experts don’t believe it makes illnesses any more severe.

“There's no indication at all that it increases the virulence,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “And by virulence, I mean the ability to make you sick or kill you.”

The U.K. variant has been identified in at least 19 countries. A separate variant is now spreading rapidly in South Africa. In the U.S., a 30-year-old man, also with no travel history, has tested positive for the U.K. strain in California.

"We actually don't know that it’s not already in other parts of the United States or in other parts of the world,” said Dr. Michelle Barron, UCHealth’s Infection Prevention senior director. “I would say almost with certainty it is because this is just what viruses do." 

Just as coronavirus infections are showing signs of leveling off in the U.S., the concern is that the new variant could cause cases to spike yet again in the New Year.

“If you’re ill, instead of only making two or three other people sick, you might actually spread it to four or five people,” said Dr. Eric France, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment director. “Of course with more cases come more hospitalizations, more ICU beds being filled and the potential of overwhelming over health care system.”

The variant does not appear to cause reinfections in people who’ve recovered from the virus. And it’s believed the new COVID-19 vaccines will be able to control it. It’s proof this type of virus mutates easily.

“The bottom line is that we need to suppress transmission of all SARS-Cov-2 viruses as quickly as we can,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization Director-General. “The more we allow it to spread, the more opportunity it has to change.'' 

Meantime, Colorado authorities are investigating how the new strain surfaced here in the hopes that its spread can be minimized or at least contained.

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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged people to "stay at home" as he announced a fresh lockdown for England, a few hours after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a strict lockdown for Scotland.

Johnson, in a televised address, said schools would close for all apart from vulnerable pupils or the children of key workers and he said people would be legally obliged to stay at home except limited exceptions such as shopping for essentials, daily exercise and for medical reasons.

People should work from home if possible, Johnson said, adding that the action was needed to stop the National Health Service being overwhelmed. The number of infections and the numbers of COVID-19 patients in hospital have hit fresh highs over the past week.

"As I speak to you tonight, our hospitals are under more pressure from COVID than any time since the start of the pandemic. With most of the country already under extreme measures, it's clear that we need to do more together to bring this new variant under control.

"We must therefore go into a national lockdown, which is tough enough to contain this variant. That means the government is once again instructing you to stay at home."

He said that if the timetable of the vaccination program went as planned and the number of cases and deaths responded to the lockdown measures as expected, it should be possible to start moving out of lockdown by the middle of February.

Earlier on Monday Scotland had also imposed its most stringent COVID-19 lockdown since last March.

The UK's component nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each implement their own COVID-19 responses, although they are increasingly trying to coordinate their actions and responses – especially because of the new variant of the coronavirus, which is thought to be more transmissible. 

Nicola Sturgeon said the new variant accounted for nearly half of new cases in Scotland and was 70 percent more transmissible. Scots, she said, would be legally required to stay at home for January from midnight. Schools will close for all but the children of essential workers.

"We have decided to introduce from midnight, for the duration of January, a legal requirement to stay at home, except for essential purposes," Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament.

"As a result of this new variant, [the virus] has just learned to run much faster and has most definitely picked up pace in the past couple of weeks. It is no exaggeration to say that I am more concerned about the situation that we face now than I have been at any time since March."

CLICK: DECIPHERING THE LANGUAGE OF THE PANDEMIC

Northern Ireland is now in the second week of a six-week lockdown, while Wales is due a review of its own Level 4 lockdowns this week. First Minister Mark Drakeford has warned there is not "much headroom for change."

Second vaccine

The developments come on a day that started brightly for British hopes of conquering the COVID-19 pandemic. At 7.30 a.m. an 82-year-old dialysis patient called Brian Pinker became the first person in the world to be given the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine outside a trial. 

"I am so pleased to be getting the COVID-19 vaccine today and really proud that it is one that was invented in Oxford," said Pinker, a retired maintenance manager, just a few hundred meters from where the vaccine was developed.

Britain, grappling with the world's sixth-worst death toll and one of the worst economic hits from the pandemic, had also been the first country to roll out the vaccine developed by Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech just under a month ago, and Health Minister Matt Hancock hailed the introduction of a second option. 

"We obviously have the very positive news this morning of the Oxford vaccine starting to be rolled out," he said. "That's a triumph of British science that we've managed to get where we are."

The UK is prioritizing getting a first dose of a vaccine to as many people as possible over giving second doses, despite some doctors and scientists expressing concern. New variants of the coronavirus are complicating the COVID-19 response, especially amid uncertainty as to whether existing vaccines will be as effective against them. 

Scotland will go into a new lockdown with people ordered to stay at home for January to tackle the escalating COVID-19 crisis, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Monday.

Sturgeon told the Scottish parliament that from midnight on Monday people would face a legal requirement to stay at home except for essential purposes, similar to the lockdown imposed at the start of the pandemic in March last year.

"As a result of this new variant, (the virus) has just learned to run much faster, and has most definitely picked up pace in the past couple of weeks," Sturgeon said. "It is no exaggeration to say that I am more concerned about the situation that we face now than I have been at any time since March."

The EU medicines watchdog says it could decide later on Monday whether to authorize Moderna's coronavirus vaccine, bringing forward the date from Wednesday. 

"There is a meeting of EMA's human medicines committee (CHMP) today, Monday, 4 January, to discuss the Moderna vaccine," the Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement. 

The agency has already approved emergency use of a COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by U.S. company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

(With input from AFP)

A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Monday accused Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council of making groundless accusations about the mainland's COVID-19 vaccines, after it "warned" Taiwan people on the mainland about "risks" connected with the mainland's vaccines.

Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said safety and effectiveness are top concerns when developing COVID-19 vaccines, adding that the protective efficacy of current vaccines on the mainland meet international standards.

Zhu added that the mainland pays close attention to the safety and health of Taiwan people on the mainland and will arrange for them to receive vaccines on a voluntary basis.

Four regions in Shijiazhuang City of north China's Hebei Province were classified as medium-risk areas starting from Monday, local authorities said.  

Hebei reported four locally-transmitted COVID-19 cases and 13 asymptomatic cases on Sunday, the provincial Health Commission said Monday. 

Social distancing rules in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) will be extended by another two weeks till January 20, the SAR government announced on Monday. 

Meanwhile, the temporary suspension of in-person classes for kindergartens, primary and middle schools will also be extended till the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, which falls in the middle of February. 

Hong Kong recorded 53 new infections of COVID-19 on Sunday, of which 43 were locally transmitted, the Center for Health Protection said on Monday, taking the region's total cases to 9,017.

Out of the new local cases, six have unknown sources, the authorities added.

Beijing will strictly follow COVID-19 guidance requesting that all travelers entering the Chinese capital from overseas take another 7-day home observation after a 14-day quarantine at designated facilities, local authorities said on Monday. 

Beijing on Sunday reported two new locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases and one new asymptomatic case. 

As of 2 p.m. BJT on Monday, a total of 2,320 close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Shunyi District were transferred to designated facilities. Over 42,380,000 people in the region received nucleic acid tests for COVID-19, with 41,500,000 of them testing negative so far and the rest awaiting results, according to local authorities. 

Britain on Monday began inoculating its citizens with the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The first shot was given to Brian Pinker, an 82-year-old dialysis patient, at a hospital a few hundred meters away from where the vaccine was developed.

"I am so pleased to be getting the COVID vaccine today and really proud that it is one that was invented in Oxford," he said in a statement released by the health service.

"The nurses, doctors and staff today have all been brilliant and I can now really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year."

Britain has ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot, and is also rolling out a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

Northeast China's Liaoning Province reported two new COVID-19 cases between midnight and noon on Monday, one in Dalian City and one in Shenyang City, according to the local health authorities.

The new cases bring the total confirmed cases in the province to 371. Thirty-one asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.

Japan could declare another state of emergency in Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures in the near future to curb the spread of the coronavirus, said Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at a news conference on Monday. 

Tokyo reported 816 new daily COVID-19 cases on Sunday, a day after governors from the capital and neighboring prefectures called on the Japanese government to announce a state of emergency to combat a recent surge in cases.

The government is giving top priority to quick assessment of coronavirus vaccines for regulatory approval and stepping up preparations to start vaccinations against the coronavirus as early as late February, Suga said.

The vaccination in late February is earlier than its previous timeline for frontline healthcare workers to start receiving inoculations in mid-March.

Suga said that he would "set an example" by taking the vaccine himself.

The 72-year-old also hinted that if a state of emergency is declared in Tokyo, it won't be as strict as before.

The government will possibly make a decision on the declaration on Thursday, and put it into effect the same day or on Friday, reported Kyodo News Agency citing government sources on Monday. 

Leaders from Tokyo and its neighboring prefectures have agreed to jointly ask residents to refrain from non-essential trips outside their homes and call on dining and drinking establishments to close by 8 p.m., reported Kyodo. 

It was not immediately clear what the new state of emergency would look like, with schools and some businesses closing during the previous one last spring, Kyodo added.

If the state of emergency is declared, it would be the second time parts of Japan have entered a state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic. The first lasted for more than a month last spring, when schools and non-essential businesses were asked to close.

Japan has relied on voluntary closures and travel restrictions rather than the sort of rigid lockdown measures seen elsewhere in the world.

Although the case numbers in Japan pale in comparison to many parts of Europe and the Americas, Suga has the challenge of hosting the Olympics in Tokyo this summer after the pandemic caused the Games first-ever delay in 2020.

Japan last month said it would temporarily ban non-resident foreign nationals from entering the country after the detection of the new, highly infectious variant of the coronavirus.

(With input from agencies)

The Chinese mainland on Sunday reported 33 new COVID-19 cases – 13 cases of local transmission and 20 from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Monday.

The locally transmitted cases were reported in north and northeast China: six in Liaoning Province, four in Hebei Province, two in Beijing and one in Heilongjiang Province.

Moreover, 40 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 294 asymptomatic patients remained under medical observation. No death related to COVID-19 was registered on Sunday, while 17 patients were discharged from hospitals. 

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China has reached 87,150, and the death toll stands at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 8,964 (8,011 recoveries, 150 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 812 (689 recoveries, 7 deaths)

Canada's COVID-19 cases surpassed 600,000 as of Sunday afternoon, with the total hitting 601,653, including 15,865 deaths, according to CTV.

Ontario, the most populous province in Canada, reported 2,964 new cases and 25 additional deaths.

There has been an average increase of 2,792 new cases per day across the country over the past week and Ontario set a new single-day record of 3,363 cases on Saturday.

Responding to widespread concerns about people's travel, the Canadian authorities announced last week that anyone arriving in Canada is required to test negative for the virus.

Another 54,990 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 2,654,779, according to official figures released Sunday.

It was the sixth day in a row that daily new cases have topped 50,000 in Britain.

Another 454 have died within 28 days of a positive test, bringing the total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain to 75,024, the data showed.

Earlier Sunday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said regional restrictions in England are "probably about to get tougher" in the coming weeks to curb rising coronavirus infections.

British medical experts have warned that tougher days are still ahead due to the spread of the new virus strain, which is said to be 70 percent more transmissible.

"This new variant is definitely more infectious and is spreading across the whole of the country. It seems very likely that we are going to see more and more cases, wherever people work in the UK, and we need to be prepared for that," Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, told the BBC on Saturday.

London and many other parts of England have already been under the highest Tier Four restrictions, which require residents in the areas to stay at home, with limited exemptions.

In the Tier Four areas, people are also urged to work from home when they can, and should not enter or leave those areas. People should also not mix with anyone outside their own household, apart from support bubbles.

The British government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) has urged all regions of England to be placed in Tier Four restrictions.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday tougher lockdown restrictions were probably on the way as COVID-19 cases keep rising, but that schools were safe and children should continue to attend where permitted.

COVID-19 cases in Britain are at record levels and the increase in numbers is fuelled by a new and more transmissible variant of the virus. The government has cancelled the planned reopening of schools in and around London but teaching unions want wider closures.

Much of England is already living under the toughest level of restriction under a four-tier system of regional regulations designed to stop the spread of the virus and protect the national healthcare system.

But, asked in a BBC interview about concerns that the system may not be enough to bring the virus under control, Johnson said restrictions "alas, might be about to get tougher".

"There are obviously a range of tougher measures that we would have to consider I'm not going to speculate now about what they would be,” he said.

(With input from agencies)

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the African continent has reached 2,807,864 of Sunday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The continental disease control and prevention agency said in a statement that the death toll from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has reached 66,631 as of Sunday afternoon.

The Africa CDC, a specialized healthcare agency of the African Union (AU) Commission, also said that a total of 2,332,063 people infected with COVID-19 had recovered from the infectious virus across the continent so far.

The most affected African countries in terms of the number of positive cases include South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Ethiopia, respectively, figures from the Africa CDC showed.

South Africa has the highest number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, at 1,088,889. The country also has the highest COVID-19-inflicted deaths at 29,175 according to the Africa CDC.

Meanwhile, Chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, on Friday called on the African continent to ensure economic recovery from the brunt of COVID-19 pandemic as the New Year begins.

"As we mark the end of the year 2020, we also mark the end of one of the most extraordinary and challenging years in living memory," the chairperson of the 55-member pan-African bloc said in a statement.

Mahamat warned that "the challenging task of protecting our health and livelihoods, while ensuring recovery of our economies, still lies ahead as we begin a new year."

A total of 73,537 people in 220 inoculation venues across Beijing have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine in two days since the city began administering the jab among specific groups of people with higher infection risks on Friday.

No serious side effects have been observed among the vaccine receivers, Gao Xiaojun, a spokesperson for the municipal health commission told a press briefing Sunday.

The inoculation currently mainly covers nine groups of people aged 18 to 59 in Beijing. These include frontline customs inspectors of imported cold-chain goods and personnel working in the overseas and domestic transportation sector.

A female staffer at a vaccination point in Beijing's Xicheng District was found waiting for recipients at 7 a.m. Sunday.

"I'm responsible for ID verification and registration before they get the vaccine," said the woman with face and hands turned red due to the cold. "Here we mainly serve practitioners in cold-chain and catering industries. Everyone queued up in an orderly way and fully understood and supported our work."

"Our company informed us of nine possible contraindications to receive the vaccine. Since I have none of them I came without hesitation," said Xie Fei, who works at a Walmart store in the district.

"The injection was administered in minutes and I have been observed for half an hour. Currently I don't have any discomfort," said Xie, who came with about 30 colleagues. "I'm frequently exposed to imported cold-chain food at work, and the COVID-19 vaccination not only protects me but also customers."

People receiving the jab will have the information updated on Beijing's health code app, Gao noted, adding that those who have urgent plans to travel overseas can apply for COVID-19 inoculation at the community service center.

After the vaccines receive market approval, authorities in Beijing will start vaccination for other groups on a reservation basis, said Gao at an earlier press conference.

China announced Thursday that it had granted conditional marketing authorization to its first self-developed COVID-19 vaccine. The inactivated vaccine got approval from the National Medical Products Administration. It was developed by the Beijing Biological Products Institute Co. Ltd. under the China National Biotec Group, affiliated with Sinopharm.

Kuwait's civil aviation authority is suspending direct commercial flights to and from Britain as of Wednesday (January 6) at 4.00 a.m. Kuwaiti time until further notice, the authority said in a tweet on Sunday.

Kenya extends night curfew to March to curb COVID-19 spread

Kenya is extending its nightly curfew to March 12 as part of measures aimed at taming the spread of COVID-19, President Uhuru Kenyatta's office said on Sunday.

In November, Kenyatta extended the nightly curfew that was set to expire on Sunday. It runs between 10 p.m and 4 a.m. local time.

Germany poised to extend coronavirus lockdown

Germany is likely to extend a national lockdown beyond January 10 to curb coronavirus infection rates that are still running high and putting huge strains on hospitals and health workers, politicians said at the weekend.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and regional leaders are expected to agree to extend the restrictions when they convene on Tuesday.

It is not yet clear how long the extension would last.

Tougher lockdown restrictions likely on the way, says UK PM Johnson

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday that tougher lockdown restrictions were probably on the way as COVID-19 cases keep rising, but that schools were safe and children should continue to attend.

Boris added that the country will have 530,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine ready to administer on Monday and hopes to provide "tens of millions" of vaccinations over the next three months.

Thailand mulls more restrictions amid second wave of coronavirus

Thailand's government held off from ordering new nationwide business shutdowns on Sunday amid a wave of coronavirus cases but empowered some provincial governors to set their own restrictions and pleaded with the public not to travel.

On Sunday, it confirmed 315 new coronavirus cases, the majority of which were local transmissions, bringing its total to 7,694 cases and 64 deaths since its first case last January.

(With input from Reuters, AFP)

China's monitoring index for adverse reactions to vaccines has reached the World Health Organization (WHO)'s standard, Wang Huaqing, chief expert of vaccination planning at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Sunday at a press conference.

China announced on December 31 that it would provide COVID-19 vaccines for free to the Chinese public as the first vaccine has been granted conditional marketing approval for the general population.

As of Saturday, 73,537 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were injected in Beijing. No serious adverse reactions have been reported.

The health authorities in Dalian City, northeast China's Liaoning Province on Sunday said that the origin of the current COVID-19 outbreak in the city has been preliminarily determined as being caused by five dock workers carrying goods that tested positive for COVID-19 from a Russian cargo ship.

The city of Shenyang in northeast China's Liaoning Province has tested 4,556,845 people in nine districts within three days, with all tests coming back negative for COVID-19, local health authorities said on Sunday.

A total of 13 regions were designated as medium-risk areas for COVID-19 in the city as of Sunday.

Authorities said on Sunday that environmental samples in four places in Shunyi District of Beijing came back positive for COVID-19. 

A total of 5,365 environmental samples were collected in the district, said authorities, adding that as of 2 p.m. on Sunday, a total of 2,035 close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases were transferred to a designated quarantine facility for medical observation.

As of Saturday, 73,537 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were injected in Beijing. No serious adverse reactions have been reported.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region recorded 41 new COVID-19 cases, of which 40 were locally transmitted, according to the Center for Health Protection on Sunday.

The total tally of COVID-19 cases is now 8,964.

Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday the lifting of the ban on all international flights as well as land and sea entry, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The two-week ban was part of the precautionary measures against the spread of a mutant variant of coronavirus detected in a number of countries.

The lifting decision becomes effective from 11 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) on Sunday, according to the Interior Ministry.

Still, non-Saudi citizens should spend at least 14 days outside the countries identified as places where the new COVID-19 strain has broken out before entry and carry at least one COVID-19 test, the ministry said.

Saudi citizens from those countries should be quarantined for 14 days upon arrival and carry two COVID-19 tests, it added.

The city of Shenyang in northeast China's Liaoning Province has reported three new COVID-19 cases between midnight and noon on Sunday, according to the local health authorities. 

The new cases bring the total confirmed cases in the city to 365. Thirty-three asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.

India's drugs regulator on Sunday officially approved the emergency use of Covishield, Oxford-AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, as well as Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.

More than 350,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S., while the total confirmed cases exceeded 20.4 million as of 12:22 p.m. BJT on Sunday, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins University.

South China's Guangdong Province on Saturday detected one case of the mutant strain of the coronavirus. The gene sequence of the strain is highly similar to the virus strain first found in the UK, according to Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The patient, an 18-year-old Chinese student studying overseas, entered the city of Guangzhou from the UK on December 4, 2020 and tested positive for the coronavirus on December 18.

The Chinese mainland on Saturday reported 24 new COVID-19 cases – eight cases of local transmission and 16 from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Sunday.

The locally transmitted cases were reported in north and northeast China: four in Heilongjiang Province, two in Liaoning Province, one in Hebei Province and one in Beijing.

Moreover, eight new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 269 asymptomatic patients remained under medical observation. No death related to COVID-19 was registered on Saturday, while 12 patients were discharged from hospitals. 

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China has reached 87,117, and the death toll stands at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 8,923 (7,968 recoveries, 150 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 808 (686 recoveries, 7 deaths)

Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has suspended all municipal bus and taxi services, the latest measure to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, local authorities said on Sunday.

A day earlier, Heihe City's Aihui District reported four confirmed COVID-19 cases, which were previously asymptomatic.

India approved the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for emergency use, a government minister said on Saturday.

Friday's approval came days after the UK cleared the use of the same vaccine on Wednesday. 

Japan will consider issuing a new emergency declaration after governors in the capital region urged action to cope with soaring COVID-19 cases, the head of the nation's pandemic response said on Saturday.

The government needs to consult with health experts before declaring a state of emergency, Economic Revitalization Minister Nishimura Yasutoshi told reporters after meeting with Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and leaders from three neighboring prefectures.

The request was filed jointly by Tokyo and neighboring Saitama, Chiba, and Kanagawa prefectures as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases soar despite Tokyo's appeal to the public to stay home.

The tally of new COVID-19 cases in Tokyo on New Year's Eve was as high as 1,337.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region recorded 35 new COVID-19 cases, of which 34 were locally transmitted, according to the Center for Health Protection on Saturday.

The total tally of COVID-19 cases is now 8,924.

"The COVID-19 situation in Beijing is basically under control," said a local official at a press conference on Saturday. 

Beijing reported one more case on Friday, bringing the total to 25 infections since December 18.

There are seven "COVID-19 middle-risk areas" in Beijing now.

The capital city started inoculations of China's first batch of vaccines on Friday. 

Nine high-risk groups in Beijing are the first to be inoculated before the Chinese lunar New Year on February 12, according to Gao Xiaojun, spokesperson for the Beijing Municipal Health Commission.

Read more: Beijing to inoculate 9 key groups by Chinese lunar New Year

Key groups include people working in the cold-chain logistics sector, custom inspectors, medical workers, employees at government agencies and public service sectors, community workers, as well as people who need to go abroad.

Vietnam has detected its first imported case of the new coronavirus variant that is spreading rapidly around Britain, the health ministry said on Saturday.

The variant was detected in a 44-year-old woman returning to Vietnam from Britain, who was quarantined upon arrival and was confirmed positive of the virus on December 24, the ministry said in a statement.

"Researchers ran gene-sequencing on the patient's sample and found the strain is a variant known as 'VOC 202012/01,'" it said.

South Korea will extend unprecedented social distancing rules in Seoul and neighboring areas until January 17, Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said on Saturday, including a ban on gatherings with more than four people.

Kwon told a briefing that the measures were necessary to reduce a prolonged surge in infections that has led to a spike in deaths.

The country reported 824 new cases as of midnight on Friday, down from 1,029 a day before.

The Chinese mainland recorded 22 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, of which eight were locally transmitted and 14 from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Saturday.

Seven domestic cases in Liaoning Province and one in Beijing were reported.

Nineteen new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 279 asymptomatic patients remained under medical observation.

No COVID-19 deaths were registered on Friday. Meanwhile, nine patients were discharged from hospitals. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China reached 87,093, and the death toll stands at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 8,888 (7,912 recoveries, 149 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 802 (682 recoveries, 7 deaths)

Confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States have surpassed 20 million, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.

That's nearly twice as many infections as in India, which ranked second in the world in terms of the virus caseload, and nearly a quarter of the global case tally of more than 83 million.

COVID-19 deaths have also increased in the country, totaling 347,487 as of early Friday afternoon.

India and Brazil trail behind the U.S. in coronavirus cases at over 10 million and seven million, respectively.

The increase comes as officials race to vaccinate millions of Americans. But immunization campaigns have come off to a slower and messier start.

President-elect Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration Tuesday for the pace of distributing COVID-19 vaccines and vowed to ramp up the current speed of vaccinations. However, Biden acknowledged that it "will still take months to have the majority of Americans vaccinated."

Experts believe the worst is yet to come globally, predicting a sharp rise in cases and deaths after weeks of holiday gatherings.

Waiting for vaccines

The desperate race to vaccinate is set to dominate the coming year, with the coronavirus already killing at least 1.8 million people since December 2019, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

German firm BioNTech said Friday it was racing to ramp up production of its COVID-19 jab to fill a shortage left by the lack of other approved vaccines in Europe.

The World Health Organization on Thursday granted emergency validation to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, paving the way for countries worldwide to quickly approve its import and distribution.

Countries including Britain, Canada and the United States approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine earlier, and have since also greenlighted jabs by U.S. firm Moderna or Oxford-AstraZeneca.

"The current situation is not rosy, there's a hole because there's an absence of other approved vaccines and we have to fill this gap," BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin told Der Spiegel weekly.

There are also criticisms of the slow pace of the vaccine roll-out in recent days. In Germany, senior doctors have complained that hospital staff are left waiting for vaccines despite being in a priority group.

Quiet New Year celebrations worldwide

Normally extravagant midnight celebrations in cities such as Sydney, New York, Rio de Janeiro and Edinburgh have been scaled back or cancelled, and crowds banned from attending.

Rio saw one upside: 89 percent less garbage on Copacabana beach, which is left clogged with trash each year after its New Year party.

"We were ready for any scenario. But congratulations to the people of Rio, who listened to the authorities' calls to avoid large crowds and stay home," said municipal sanitation chief Flavio Lopes.

In France, some 2,500 party goers attended an illegal New Year rave near Rennes, clashing with police who tried to stop it, authorities said.

(With input from AP, AFP)

High-risk groups in Beijing will be the first to finish COVID-19 vaccine inoculations before the Chinese lunar New Year, which falls on February 12, said an official at a press conference Thursday.

"Nine key groups will get their first shot by mid-January, and the second dose two to four weeks later," said Gao Xiaojun, spokesperson for the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, adding other people will be vaccinated afterward. 

"Keys groups" include people working in the cold-chain logistics sector, custom inspectors, medical workers, employees at government agencies and public service sectors, community workers, as well as people who need to go aboard.

Instead of making a personal appointment, vaccination will be rolled out on a community basis, according to the local health commission.

Read more: China to provide free COVID-19 vaccine to residents

China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) on Wednesday gave a conditional market authorization to a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinopharm, making it the country's first vaccine for general public use.

According to the NMPA, a conditional approval occurs only when no effective treatment for a life-threatening disease is available, and medicine for a rare disease is in dire need. Meanwhile, existing clinical data is incomplete and so inadequate for a routine registration procedure, but it indicates the vaccine is safe enough for mass emergency use.

Although details of the late-stage trials have not been released, the developer, Beijing Biological Products Institute Co., Ltd has released the interim results of the Phase-III clinical trials in a statement on Wednesday, suggesting a 79.34-percent efficacy, a result that meets the World Health Organization standard.

China has given emergency use approval for Sinopharm's vaccines in July. So far, the vaccine has been administered to over 60,000 people in many countries, with no severe side effects reported, Zheng Zhongwei, the National Health Commission official heading China's COVID-19 vaccine development team, told a press briefing last month.

"The data is being submitted on a rolling basis to the drug regulators for review," Zheng said, adding relevant data will be released to the public in time.

Earlier in December, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) health authority reported that based on Phase-III trials conducted within the country, Sinopharm's vaccine has shown an 86-percent efficacy.

The country has started offering free COVID-19 inoculations with this vaccine to all citizens and residents on December 25, after it authorized the emergency use to frontline health workers in September.

Senior country officials who also received the shot include the UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.

The Philippines will prohibit the entry of foreign travelers from the United States effective January 3, President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman said on Friday after the new and more infectious variant of the coronavirus was detected in Florida, the third U.S. state to report variant cases.

The travel ban, until January 15, includes those who have been to the United States within 14 days preceding arrival in the Philippines, spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement.

Filipino citizens are not subjected to the ban but will be required to undergo a facility-based 14-day quarantine period, even if they obtain a negative RT-PCR test result, according to the announcement. 

(With input from Reuters)

India's drug regulator on Friday approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for emergency use, according to Reuters citing two sources with knowledge of the matter.

India's Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) has yet to make an official announcement. 

India is the second hardest-hit country by COVID-19 after the U.S. with more than 10 million confirmed cases so far. 

The AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine has already been approved for urgent public use in the UK and Argentina.

(With input from Reuters)

Norway is lifting its ban on flights from Britain, introduced to stop the spread of a more contagious variant of the coronavirus, the health ministry said on Friday, with planes allowed to land from January 2 at 1600 GMT.

Following the lead of other European nations, Norway on December 21 halted travel from Britain after news that the new variant of the virus was rapidly spreading.

Beijing's Shunyi District has halted gatherings and operation of some businesses, including cinemas and swimming pools, in an attempt to rein in the spread of the coronavirus as another four cases have been reported in the district on Thursday.

Residents are advised to stay in Shunyi during the New Year holiday, a district official told a press briefing on Friday afternoon. 

As of Friday afternoon, 109,000 people in the district have been swabbed and 101,700 of them have tested negative as the rest are still waiting for the result.

Shunyi District has reported 20 confirmed cases over the past week.

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region recorded 42 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, including 36 that were transmitted locally, the Center for Health Protection (CHP) said Friday. 

The origins of 13 infections remain unknown, according to the CHP.

Four variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for causing COVID-19 are circulating worldwide, said a report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday.

A variant of the virus with a D614G substitution in the gene encoding the spike protein emerged in late January or early February 2020. The mutated virus replaced the initial SARS-CoV-2 strain by June 2020 and became dominant, said the report. This strain has increased infectivity and transmission but doesn't cause more severe illness or alter the effectiveness of existing laboratory diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines, or public health preventive measures.

The second variant was identified in Denmark's mink breeding farms in late January or early February 2020. Named "Cluster 5" by Danish authorities, this variant may reduce virus neutralization in humans, which could potentially decrease the extent and duration of immune protection following natural infection or vaccination. The report said this variant does not appear to have spread widely.

On December 14, 2020, the UK reported to WHO a new variant referred to as SARS-CoV-2 VOC 202012/01, which first appeared in southeast England. Preliminary studies suggested that this variant has increased transmissibility but indicated no change in disease severity. The report said that VOC-202012/01 had been reported in 31 other countries/territories/areas in five of the six WHO regions as of December 30, 2020.

The fourth variant, 501Y.V2, was reported on December 18, in South Africa. According to preliminary studies, the variant is associated with a higher viral load, suggesting a potential for increased transmissibility.

But there's no clear evidence of variant causing more severe disease or worse outcomes. In the week beginning November 16, 2020, South African health authorities found that this new variant has mostly replaced other SARS-CoV-2 viruses circulating in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape KwaZulu-Natal provinces, the report added. 

The Chinese mainland has reported the first case of a new variant of the novel coronavirus recently detected in the UK, the Chinese Center for Disease Control (CDC) said.

The new strain was detected in a 23-year-old female student returning to China from Britain. The student was tested in Shanghai on December 14, according to the latest edition of China CDC Weekly published on Wednesday.

The gene-sequence of the patient's sample conducted on December 24, revealed that the strain is a variant known as "VUI-202012/01" which has been circulating in the UK. The patient has been transferred to the designated medical institution for isolation and treatment.

The variant was picked up as part of an epidemiological and virological investigation initiated earlier in December 2020 following an unexpected rise in COVID-19 cases in Southeast England, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Initial analysis indicates that the variant may spread more readily between people, said the WHO.

The new "VUI-202012/01" variant has been identified in several countries, including Australia, Denmark, Italy, Iceland, the Netherlands and some Asian countries like Japan and South Korea. 

The case "poses a great potential threat to the prevention and control of COVID-19 in China," the CDC said. 

On December 27, China's civil aviation regulator announced to suspend regular passenger flights between China and the UK from December 28, 2020, to January 10, 2021. 

'No need to panic'

Following the revelation, an official from CDC said the new variant so far does not cause more severe illness, adding there's no need for the public to panic.

"The mutated variant, compared with previous mutated variants .... has no obvious change so far in its ability to cause disease," Xu Wenbo, an official at the Chinese CDC, told state TV, China Central Television.

On Friday night, Zhang Wenhong, head of Shanghai's COVID-19 clinical experts team also reassured the public.

"For mutant viruses, there will not be any clinical particularity," Zhang said in a social media post, adding the female patient, who had only showed very mild symptoms, has already tested negative and left the quarantine ward. 

Zhang said the variant might be slightly more transmissible but it hasn't been found yet that COVID-19 vaccines do not work on it.

(Cover: Workers are disinfecting streets to contain the spread of coronavirus in Shanghai, China, November 24, 2020. /CFP)

The Chinese mainland recorded 19 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, of which nine were locally transmitted and 10 from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Friday.

Four domestic cases in Liaoning Province and five in Beijing were reported.

19 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 279 asymptomatic patients remained under medical observation.

No COVID-19 deaths were registered on Thursday. Meanwhile, 17 patients were discharged from hospital. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China reached 87,071, and the death toll stands at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 8,846 (7,813 recoveries, 148 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 799 (671 recoveries, 7 deaths)

Two cases of the new strain of COVID-19 that was first detected in the United Kingdom have been identified in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, leading authorities on Thursday to call for stepped up measures to curb the spread.

"It is not a cause for panic. This strain does not come with more serious forms of the disease, but it does come with greater power to cause infection," the Secretary of Health for the state of Sao Paulo, Jean Gorynchtein, said in a televised broadcast.

The new variant was detected by private diagnostic laboratory Dasa, which then informed the state's Adolfo Lutz Institute and the Secretariat of Health Monitoring for further analysis.

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has recorded 68 new COVID-19 cases, including 62 that were transmitted locally, the Center for Health Protection (CHP) said on Thursday. 

The origin of 28 infections remains unknown, according to the CHP.

One hospitalized patient died on Thursday, pushing the city's death toll to 148.

The current COVID-19 outbreak in Dalian City, northeast China's Liaoning Province originated overseas according to analysis of gene sequencing results, local health authorities said on Thursday, adding that there is no correlation with the gene sequences of the previous epidemic in the city.

New COVID-19 infections in Tokyo hit more than 1,000 cases for the first time on Thursday, Kyodo news agency reported, citing the city's governor Yuriko Koike, raising worries about a possible explosion in COVID-19 cases.

COVID-19 is still ravaging the world. As winter comes, the rate of infection is rising. But the world is exhausted with months of compulsory mask wearing, social distancing, curfews and lockdowns. A vaccine is now the most powerful way to curb the disease.

China will provide COVID-19 vaccines for free to the Chinese public as the first vaccine has been granted conditional marketing approval for the general population, said Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health Commission, at a press conference on Thursday. 

China's Medical Products Administration on Wednesday granted conditional marketing authorization to a COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Beijing Biological Products Institute Co., Ltd. under the China National Biotec Group (CNBG), which is affiliated with Sinopharm.

The approved inactivated vaccine has showed 79.34 percent efficacy against COVID-19, according to the interim results of the phase-3 clinical trials unveiled by its developer on Wednesday.

China has to date adopted five technological approaches in developing COVID-19 vaccines, with 14 vaccines entering clinical trials, of which five are undergoing phase-3 clinical trials, Xu Nanping, vice minister of science and technology, told the press conference. 

He also said the recent COVID-19 variants show no significant proof to affect the effectiveness of the vaccine after the studies among the experts. "We have a database of nearly 300,000 COVID-19 genomic sequence data at China National Center For Bioinformation. We've been keeping a close look at the virus variation which is happenning every day but within a normal scope."  

The ministry also plans ahead for the possibility when the COVID-19 variants may affect the vaccine. Xu said they already have groups to research on certain tasks such as virus variation, vaccine examination, R&D and vaccine effectiveness.

Based on the research data from phase-1 and phase-2, the antibody can remain at a high level after six months, said CNBG President Wu Yongling. The effectiveness will be observed in a long term. Countries including United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have already approved the vaccine's registration for the commercial use in accordance with related WHO standards. 

So far, the vaccine has been administered to over 60,000 people with 125 nationalities in many countries. The current results have exceeded the intended requirement.

To protect high-risk groups, China approved the emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines in June and started inoculation at a small scale with over 1.5 million doses being administrated for emergency use by the end of November, said Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health Commission. As the vaccine is approved to the market, vulnerable groups including the elderly and people with diseases will be the first to receive the inoculation.Then the vaccine will expand to all people. Generally inoculation rate needs to be over 60 percent to 70 percent to reach the herd immunity.

Since the official launch of vaccination on December 15, a total of more than 3 million doses have been administered to key population groups nationwide, Zeng added.

The U.S. reported 3,927 new COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 341,845, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University. 

A total of 189,671 new cases have been recorded, bringing the U.S. total to 19,715,899 infections since the pandemic began.

A highly infectious coronavirus variant originally discovered in Britain has been detected in California, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday, a day after the first known U.S. case was reported in the state of Colorado.

Newsom revealed the news in an online conversation with Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, without giving further details on the person who's infected.

Fauci said he was "not surprised," adding that additional cases of the variant would likely surface in California and other states.

"I don't think Californians should think that this is odd. It's to be expected," Fauci said.

The Chinese mainland recorded 25 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, of which nine were locally transmitted and 16 from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Thursday.

Five domestic cases were reported in Liaoning Province, two in Beijing and two in Heilongjiang Province.

Eight new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 267 asymptomatic patients remained under medical observation.

No COVID-19 deaths were registered on Wednesday. Meanwhile, 13 patients were discharged from hospital. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China reached 87,052, and the death toll stood at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 8,778 (7,722 recoveries, 147 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 797 (666 recoveries, 7 deaths)

Britain has recorded almost 1,000 coronavirus deaths overnight, the highest daily death toll since late April, according to the official figures released on Wednesday.

The daily number of deaths of people who had had a positive test result for COVID-19 and died within 28 days of the first positive test reached 981, bringing the total to 72,548, according to the official figures.

This is the highest daily deaths reported in the country since April 24, when 1,010 coronavirus-related deaths were reported. There is likely to be a lag in reporting deaths over the Christmas period, the Evening Standard newspaper reported.

Canada will now require anyone entering the country to obtain a negative Covid PCR test within three days before planned arrival.

Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic Leblanc announced the requirement in a press conference Wednesday

The PCR test is an additional requirement that all arrivals to Canada must obtain in addition to completing a 14-day quarantine upon their arrival into the country

The latest measure is an attempt to slow the spread of Covid-19 in the country.

(With input from agencies)

A new single-injection COVID-19 vaccine has shown good potential in trials, according to its Belgian developer. And new trials in the UK have shown an efficacy rate of 89 percent for another, produced by Novavax in the UK. 

Belgian pharmaceutical firm Janssen said their single-jab vaccine is 66 percent effective, although doubts remain over how well it can defend against newer variants. But crucially, without a need for a second injection, this vaccine would avoid some of the administration challenges linked with other vaccines. Supply would also go twice as far. Janssen is owned by Johnson & Johnson. 

Several other vaccines have been rolled out in other countries. Sinopharm, one of the pharmaceutical companies developing a vaccine in China, says the results of its phase three trials show it is 79 percent effective, while the makers of Russia's Sputnik-V vaccine say it is also highly effective.

The vaccines use different types of technology to stimulate an immune response from the body and protect people from becoming ill with COVID-19. Here we explain how they work.

Novavax

How does it work? 

It's slightly different from the vaccines which have been approved so far, but the broad goal of triggering the body's immune system to elicit a response against the "spike protein" on the virus remains the same. 

The Novavax jab uses a lab-made protein, and an "adjuvant," which help prompt a human immune reaction. It involves two injections, which the makers recommend to be taken three weeks apart. 

How effective is it?

Phase 3 trials in the UK have shown the Novavax vaccine is 89 percent effective against the original COVID-19 virus. Crucially, it has also shown effectiveness against the "new" varients found around the world. 

Trials in South Africa suggest it is 60% effective against the strain thought to have originated there. 

How is it stored?

It can be stored at domestic fridge temperature. 

Janssen

How does it work?

This vaccine uses a common cold virus which has been genetically engineered to cause no harm to humans. Using the cold as a host, the Janssen vaccine delivers part of the COVID-19 genetic sequence into the body. This alerts the body to the new coronavirus without putting patients at high risk. 

How effective is it?

A single dose is 66 percent effective, on average. In trials in the U.S. it was recorded as 72 percent effective at stopping infections, but it was only effective in 57 percent of cases in South Africa, perhaps owing to different virus varients. 

How is it stored?

A single dose at regular fridge temperature can give the 66 percent level of protection, according to the study. This could speed up delivery around the world, but the firm is also experiementing with a second injection, to see if that boosts immunity further. 

Oxford-AstraZeneca

How does it work?

Scientists have taken genes from the spike protein on COVID-19 and inserted them into a harmless common cold virus to create their vaccine. When injected into the body, cells begin to reproduce the spike protein. This immune system retaliates by producing antibodies and creating T-Cells to destroy those cells and prevent the person from falling ill. If the person is infected with COVID-19 at a later date, they now have antibodies and T-Cells to deal with it. Two doses of the vaccine are meant to be 62 percent effective.

How effective is it?

Results from trials using two doses of the vaccine taken up to three months apart found it to be 62 percent effective – that's higher than the seasonal flu vaccine which is roughly 50 percent effective. Scientists are now waiting to see if the vaccine stops transmission of the virus.

How is it stored?

The vaccine can be transported and stored in normal fridges, meaning it can be distributed more quickly and speed up vaccination programs.

Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna

How does it work?

These two vaccines use the same innovative mRNA technology, which works differently from the traditional approach used to create the Oxford jab. Rather than injecting the virus into a person, the vaccine instead introduces the body to a messenger sequence, which gives the immune system instructions to create its own antigens – the cells that prompt the immune system to produce antibodies and T-Cells to fight COVID-19.  

How effective is it?

Results from Pfizer trials showed it to be 95 percent effective within 28 days of the first dose. As with the Oxford vaccine, the second dose is required for longer-term immunity. The Moderna results gave it an effectiveness of 94.5 percent.

How is it stored?

One of the drawbacks of the Pfizer vaccine is that it must be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius during transportation. The Moderna jab can be stored in normal fridges for up to 30 days and at room temperature for 12 hours. It's also stable at minus 20 degrees Celsius for up to 12 months.

Sinovac and Sinopharm

China's Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines use the same approach as the Oxford vaccine to provide immunity from COVID-19. Killed viral particles from the virus are injected into the body, which triggers an immune response and stops a person from falling seriously ill when they contract COVID-19.  

How effective is it?

On Wednesday, Sinopharm said results from trials showed its vaccine to be 79 percent effective and it has already been approved in the United Arab Emirates. Researchers in Brazil say the Sinovac vaccine is more than 50 percent effective.

How is it stored?

Just like the Oxford vaccine, both jabs can be stored at regular fridge temperature, which will also make it easier for poorer nations to transport and store the vaccine.

Sputnik-V

How does it work?

The Sputnik-V vaccine uses an inactivated virus, just like the Oxford, Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines to stimulate an immune response from the body. 

How effective is it?

Trials showed the vaccine proved to be more than 90 percent effective in individuals aged over 60 years, according to the makers. Further tests are ongoing to see if it has the same impact on different age groups.

How is it stored?

Standard household fridges in dry form.

Health officials say a Colorado National Guard member has the first reported U.S. case of COVID-19 variant and a second case is suspected in another Guard member.

Dr. Rachel Herlihy, the state's epidemiologist, said Wednesday that the two were deployed on Dec. 23 to a nursing home with an outbreak of the virus in a small town outside Denver.

She appeared in a virtual briefing with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who says the man in his 20s with the confirmed case was recovering in isolation and had mild symptoms.

The new, mutated version was first identified in Britain, where infections are soaring and the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has surpassed the first peak seen last spring. The variant has also been found in several other countries.

"There is a lot we don't know about this new COVID-19 variant, but scientists in the United Kingdom are warning the world that it is significantly more contagious," Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said. "The health and safety of Coloradans is our top priority, and we will closely monitor this case, as well as all COVID-19 indicators, very closely.”

The discovery of the mutated version overseas led the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue rules on Christmas Day requiring travelers arriving from Britain to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test.

The British government said on Wednesday that more areas of England would be placed under the strictest COVID-19 restrictions as a highly infectious variant of the virus is spreading across the country.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the Midlands, the north east, parts of the north west and parts of the south west were being moved into Tier 4, where people will face tight social mixing restrictions and hospitality must close. 

(With input from agencies)

The UK became the first country in the world on Wednesday to approve a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca as it battles a major winter surge driven by a new, highly contagious variant of the novel coronavirus.

China's Taiwan region reported on Wednesday the first case of a new coronavirus variant that was first discovered in Britain, according to local media.

The patient is a person who returned to the island on Sunday and whose infection had previously been confirmed.

The city of Shenyang in northeast China's Liaoning Province has entered "wartime mode" after the city reported two new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and a new asymptomatic case on Tuesday, local authorities said. 

The city also initiated an emergency response to monitor high-risk groups in order to curb the spread of the virus.

Turkey received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from China's Sinovac early on Wednesday, almost a week after Ankara said the vaccine was safe and effective, based on interim Phase III trial results. 

The shipment of 3 million doses, part of a pact for a total of 50 million, was initially set to arrive on December 11 but faced setbacks. 

The first batch of vaccines was loaded from airplanes onto trucks at the capital's Esenboga Airport before being taken to the storage facilities of the Ministry of Health.  

On Twitter, the Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said authorities would begin inoculations after testing the vaccines, a process that will take 14 days. 

Turkey plans first doses for health workers and those older than 65, the ministry has said, followed by those older than 50 and suffering at least one chronic illness, in addition to those in specific sectors or high-risk environments. 

The third group will include young adults and sectors not included in prior groups. A fourth group covers all the rest not listed. 

Last week, Turkish researchers said interim analysis showed the vaccine was 91.25 percent effective. 

A new variant of the novel coronavirus does not appear to cause more severe illness than other variants, according to a matched study by Public Health England.

However, scientists say the new variant can spread more rapidly. It was found in England in mid December and led to other countries imposing travel restrictions on the United Kingdom. Several other countries have reported variants.

Read more:

France reports its first confirmed case of new coronavirus variant

South Korea reports its first cases of coronavirus variant found in UK

Finland reports cases of new coronavirus variants from UK, South Africa

Under the study, researchers compared 1,769 people infected with the new variant with 1,769 who had what they described as "wild-type" virus. The two groups were matched 1:1 on the basis of age, sex, area of residence and time of testing.

Of the 42 people who were admitted to hospital, 16 were infected with the new variant while 26 cases had wild type infection, according to the study.

In terms of fatality, "analysis was restricted to 2,700 cases with a full 28 days elapsed since the specimen date," and 12 deaths took place among 1,340 variant cases, compared to 10 deaths in 1,360 wild-type cases.

"Preliminary results from the cohort study found no statistically significant difference in hospitalization and 28-day case fatality between cases with the variant and wild-type comparator cases," the study said.

There was no significant difference in the likelihood of reinfection with the new variant as compared with the other variants, it said.

The study, however, added that the "secondary attack rate," or the proportion of contacts of confirmed cases that develop disease themselves, was higher in people infected with the new variant.

Earlier on Tuesday, a leading epidemiologist who advises the government, Andrew Hayward, warned that Britain was heading for "catastrophe" over the coming weeks if it did not take tougher action against the more infectious variant of the virus.

Britain reported 53,135 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, the highest number since mass testing started in mid-2020, according to the government data. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has approved placing more parts of the country into the highest level of tier 4 restrictions.

Interim results of Phase III clinic trials show that the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine developed by China National Biotec Group (CNBG), which is affiliated with Sinopharm, has an efficacy of 79.34 percent, according to a statement released by Beijing Institute of Biological Products. 

The statement said the vaccine offers a good level of safety after inoculation, while the data has met relevant technical standards of both the World Health Organization and the Chinese authorities.

"All patients produced high-tier antibodies and the neutralizing antibody positive conversion rate was 99.52 percent," read the statement. 

The company has officially filed an application with the National Medical Products Administration for conditional listing, the statement added.

U.S. Representative-elect Luke Letlow of Louisiana had died of COVID-19, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said on Tuesday.

Letlow, 41, announced on December 18 that he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

"It is with heavy hearts that @FirstLadyOfLA and I offer our condolences to Congressman-elect Luke Letlow's family on his passing after a battle with COVID-19," Edwards said on Twitter. "I have ordered flags to be flown at half-staff on the day of Congressman-elect Letlow's funeral."

Over two million children in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, according to the latest data of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association.

Nearly 179,000 new child COVID-19 cases were reported last week ending December 24, according to the AAP.

Since November 12, there has been an increase of one million child COVID-19 cases. Over the two weeks from December 10 to 24, there was a 22 percent increase in child COVID-19 cases in the country, according to the AAP.

Children accounted for 12.4 percent of all confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States. The overall rate was 2,658 cases per 100,000 children in the population, according to the report.

"At this time, it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is rare among children. However, there is an urgent need to collect more data on longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects," the AAP said in the report.

The Chinese mainland recorded 24 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, of which seven were locally transmitted and 17 from overseas, the National Health Commission said on Wednesday.

Five domestic cases were reported in Liaoning Province, one in Beijing and one in Heilongjiang Province.

Seventeen new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 269 asymptomatic patients remained under medical observation.

No COVID-19 deaths were registered on Tuesday. Meanwhile, 16 patients were discharged from hospital. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China reached 87,027, and the death toll stood at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 8,724 (7,616 recoveries, 143 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 795 (661 recoveries, 7 deaths)

U.S. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine live on television on Tuesday.

"I want to encourage everyone to get the vaccine. It is relatively painless. It happens really quickly. It is safe," Harris said shortly after being administered the Moderna vaccine at United Medical Center in Washington, DC. 

"So I urge everyone, when it is your turn, get vaccinated."

The vice president-elect's vaccination came just over a week after that of President-elect Joe Biden, who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

In addition to Biden and Harris, Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence, as well as Surgeon General Jerome Adams also got inoculated. All of them did it on live television to tout the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.

President Donald Trump earlier this month said he had reversed a plan to prioritize White House officials in the national vaccination program, saying that he himself is "not scheduled to take the vaccine," but that he looked forward to doing so "at the appropriate time." 

A group of foreign ambassadors and diplomats from 20 countries and world organizations paid a visit on Tuesday to the Beijing facilities of China National Biotec Group (CNBG), which is affiliated with Sinopharm, the leading Chinese vaccine developer.

That comes after Sinopharm filed for its COVID-19 vaccine to get approval for an official rollout across the country. The Middle Eastern nations of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) gave the green light for general use of the vaccine earlier this month.

The diplomats were shown around Sinopharm's vaccine production base and exhibition hall to get a glimpse of the production process and learn more about the results of clinical trials.

"It's of course on the cutting edge of technology in terms of producing COVID-19 vaccine," said Raja Nushirwan Z. A., Malaysian ambassador to China, whose country is in negotiations with China to secure vaccine supplies. "And once these talks are finalized, I'm sure we look forward to receiving these vaccines from China as soon as possible," said the ambassador.

At least 10 countries, with some 60,000 volunteers, have been taking part in late-stage clinical trials for the Sinopharm jab. The UAE has declared it to be 86 percent effective against COVID-19.

"We are very confident that the Sinopharm vaccine will be successful and we heard today that there's no side effects or severe side effects after vaccination," said acting ambassador of the Sri Lankan embassy in China K. K. Yoganaadan. The southern Asian country is also said to be in talks with Chinese companies, including Sinopharm and Sinovac, on efficacy, transportation and other relative issues so as to get vaccines to Sri Lanka.

Some 60 countries have already requested supplies of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine. The pharmaceutical company has announced plans to expand its production capacity to one billion vaccine doses in 2021 that can be distributed under regular storage and transportation conditions.

Liu Jingzhen, chairman of Sinopharm, said the firm will follow Chinese President Xi Jinping's commitment to making any COVID-19 vaccine it develops a "global public good," with the price of the vaccine expected to be lower than it is back home.

The facility visit by foreign diplomats is being seen as a positive signal for stronger cooperation in the global fight against the pandemic. The diplomats said they appreciated China's proposals and efforts in supporting developing countries and multilateralism.

"China surprised us from the first step in dealing with the pandemic. Today, I found China is doing its best producing a good vaccine. This vaccine will be good not only for China, but also for the whole world," said Faris Al-Abidy of the embassy of the Republic of Yemen.

Magnus Jorem, counselor of the Norwegian embassy in Beijing, emphasized the importance for the world – including the scientific communities, the governments and people – to come together in containing the pandemic.

"We are already collaborating in really important ways with China, through GAVI, the vaccine alliance, and through COVAX, and of course multilateral institutions like the WHO. I believe this will only continue and be increasingly important," said the counselor.

"It's not just a question of vaccines," said the Malaysian ambassador to China, pointing out that it is also about shaping the global scenario after COVID-19, including resuscitating global supply chains, trade, and people-to-people connections.

(CGTN's Lyu Lingyu, Wang Peng and Wang Lei contributed to this story.)

The first known U.S. case of a highly infectious coronavirus variant that was first detected in the UK has been identified in Colorado, the governor of the state announced on Tuesday.

"Today we discovered Colorado's first case of the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same variant discovered in the UK," Jared Polis said on Twitter.

The virus variant was identified in a Colorado man in his 20s with no travel history, according to a statement from the governor's office. 

The man is currently isolated in Elbert County and will remain there until cleared by health officials, it added.

No close contacts of the man have been identified yet, but health officials are working on contact tracing, Polis said.

(Travelers wearing protective face masks to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 walk after departing a flight at the airport in Denver, Colorado, U.S., November 24, 2020. /Reuters)

Britain's government reported 53,135 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, the highest number since mass testing started in mid-2020 and up sharply from the previous record of 41,385 set on Monday.

The number of new deaths recorded within 28 days of a positive COVID test also rose to 414 from Monday's 357, taking the total since the start of the pandemic to 71,567.

(With input from agencies)

COVAX, the World Health Organization's vaccine alliance, says it is doubling the supply of COVID-19 treatments it will make available in 2021. Around 2 billion doses will be due for delivery in spring.

The body, which has a facility in Geneva Switzerland, is the result of global collaboration and now has more than two-thirds of the world engaged with promoting equal access to coronavirus vaccines. 

Aurelia Nguyen, the managing director of the COVAX facility, told CGTN Europe it had made the move due to an "unprecedented situation," as the world faces a new, more contagious variant of the COVID-19 virus. 

One of the key concerns over the global roll-out of vaccines has been access for poorer countries. COVAX was set up in April by Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, the partner organization of the WHO tasked with increasing access to immunization in the less-developed world. It aims to provide fair access to both diagnostics and treatments for all nations. 

So far, 189 economies will be eligible for supplies to protect vulnerable groups in the first half of 2021, with access dependent on regulatory approvals and the readiness of countries for delivery.

Nguyen explained how the vast challenge of vaccine roll-out is being managed and what lessons have been learnt over the past year to pandemic response generally.

One new locally-transmitted confirmed COVID-19 case and one asymptomatic case were reported in Heihe City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, authorities said on Tuesday.

The patients include a 73-year-old woman surnamed Zhang and her grandchild, who lives with her and is asymptomatic.

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has recorded 53 new COVID-19 cases, including 50 local transmissions, the Center for Health Protection (CHP) said on Tuesday. 

The origin of 14 infections remains unknown, according to CHP. 

Two hospitalized patients died on Tuesday, pushing the city's death toll to 143.

Beijing will tighten its health monitoring measures for overseas arrivals, including those who have entered China in the last 21 days, local authorities said on Tuesday. 

Beijing will comprehensively enhance the prevention and control of the coronavirus pandemic, said Xu Hejian, spokesperson for the Beijing Municipal Government, at a press conference.

The city reported seven new locally-transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday.

Winter vacation will begin earlier than scheduled at primary and secondary schools in Beijing amid the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the city, an official said.

Primary schools will close on January 16, while the winter break will start on January 23 for grade 1 and 2 secondary schools students, announced a spokesperson for Beijing Municipal Education Commission. 

Six people who had returned from Britain in recent weeks have been tested positive for a more infectious strain of the novel coronavirus first reported in the UK, Indian health authorities said on Tuesday.

U.S. biotech company Moderna has agreed to supply coronavirus vaccines for 20 million people in South Korea from the second quarter of next year, according to Yonhap news agency.

The agreement was reached on the same day the country reported a record daily toll of 40 coronavirus deaths, pushing total fatalities to 859. The total caseload of COVID-19 was raised to 58,725.

The Chinese mainland on Monday recorded 27 new COVID-19 cases, of which 15 were locally transmitted and 12 imported, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday.

Eight local cases were reported in northeastern Liaoning Province and the other seven in Beijing.

Eight new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 262 asymptomatic patients remained under medical observation.

No COVID-19 deaths were registered on Monday. Meanwhile, 18 patients were discharged from hospital. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China reached 87,003, and the death toll stood at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 8,671 (7,526 recoveries, 141 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 793 (654 recoveries, 7 deaths)

Hospitals and ambulance units across the UK are reporting they are close to breaking point from handling patients with COVID-19.

It comes as the London Ambulance Service said that last Saturday was one of its busiest days ever, with 8,000 call-outs.

Department of Health statistics indicate England may have 20,000 coronavirus patients in hospital by New Year's Eve, surpassing the highest number during the peak of the virus in April.

Some senior scientists are blaming the highly contagious new variant of the virus, discovered in the country's southeast, for increasing the rate of new infections.

Hope is being put in the new Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that is being administered in the country, while the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is also expected to be approved by regulators this week.

AstraZeneca has said it does not expect its vaccine to have any difficulty dealing with the new variant of the virus.

"The vaccine is absolutely critical to ensuring we can deal effectively with the challenge the pandemic poses," said senior government minister Michael Gove.

The government is aiming to stagger the return to school for children in England. It means those in primary schools will head back after the Christmas break but most high school pupils will not return in January.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday announced that the country was adjusting its COVID-19 lockdown from Level 1 to Level 3 immediately following an upsurge in new infections.

The president made the announcement during his national address that came just a day after the country's virus load surpassed the one million mark.

"Several of the Level 3 regulations are being strengthened to further limit the potential for transmission, while doing everything possible to keep the economy open," said Ramaphosa.

Some of the regulations under the Level 3 regulations include a ban on all indoor and outdoor gatherings for 14 days with a few exceptions, the extension of a nationwide curfew to run from 9PM and end at 6AM, and the mandatory wearing of face masks by all persons while in the public.

The president said that persons who do not wear a mask could be arrested and prosecuted, noting that they will be liable to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or to both a fine and imprisonment.

With 1,004,413 confirmed cases, South Africa has reported more than twice the number of infections registered by the African country with the second-most cases. It has also recorded 26,735 COVID-19 related deaths.

South Africa's caseload accounts for nearly 40 percent of the continent's virus infections and more than 42 percent of the continent's virus-related fatalities.

A new coronavirus variant - known as 501.V2 - is believed to be responsible for the new wave of new infections.

"We will all have heard that there is a new variant of COVID-19 that is now well-established in our country," Ramaphosa said in his address.

He noted that while the new variant of the coronavirus appears to spread more rapidly, the increase in new infections may also have been fueled by super-spreader events including end-year events, family gatherings and social functions.

He urged South Africans to continue adhering to the laid down health protocols to curb further spread of the virus.

The new variant of the coronavirus circulating in Britain has been detected in Finland in two people, while a separate variant spreading in South Africa has been detected in one other person, health officials said on Monday.

Finland imposed travel restrictions earlier this month on passengers from Britain amid concerns over the new variant, which is thought to be more contagious than previous ones.

As of 3:00 p.m. BJT on Monday, medical workers had taken COVID-19 swab samples from 1,207,657 people in Beijing's Shunyi District; thus far, 901,206 results have come back negative, local authorities said at a press conference on Monday.

Authorities said a total of 891 close contacts of COVID-19 cases in the district were traced and are all under medical observation.

All of the streets and communities in the district have imposed Level I measures, the highest level of China's COVID-19 emergency response.

A sero-epidemiological survey of the Chinese mainland showed the COVID-19 infection rate was at a low level, said the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday. 

People who have come into contact with coronavirus-infected patients have a higher number of antibodies than people who haven't, and the antibody rate of middle-aged and older people is higher than other age groups, according to the survey.

The survey, which enrolled over 34,000 people living in communities across China, was used to measure the proportion of people infected by the novel coronavirus. Blood samples were tested to identify people who have antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease. Those who tested positive may suggest prior infections.

The survey found the antibody rate among samples collected in Wuhan City, the epicenter of China's coronavirus outbreak in Hubei Province, is 4.43 percent, while the rate in other neighboring cities within the province is 0.44 percent.

However, among the more than 12,000 samples collected outside Hubei Province, only two people were found to have coronavirus antibodies. This demonstrates that COVID-19 exposure in the community is uncommon, indicating no widespread community transmission.

Read more:

Wuhan completes 9.89 million COVID-19 tests citywide, finds 300 asymptomatic carriers

Wuhan is safe, 9.89 million COVID-19 tests show

Some European countries have conducted similar sero-epidemiological surveys. In Spain, the result of 8,902 samples collected between April 17 and June 2 showed the overall prevalence of antibody sero-positivity in the general population was 17.1 percent.

Scientists in Switzerland have also enrolled 2,766 participants from 1,339 households between April 6 and May 9. They found the sero-positivity in their country had risen from 4.8 percent to 10.8 percent during that period.

Both studies have been published in the renowned medical journal The Lancet.

According to the Chinese CDC, the sero-epidemiological survey can help scientists compare data across different age groups and different locations, so as to evaluate the effectiveness of COVID-19 control measures in the long haul.

"Rigorous research is critical to ensuring a coordinated, effective national-level outbreak response," said Professor Leo Yee Sin, executive director at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases and chair of the COVID-19 Research Workgroup in Singapore.

"In the case of COVID-19, of which much remains unknown, a swift response in clinical aspects as well as research is especially crucial to outpace the virus' rapid spread," he added.

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has reported 61 new COVID-19 cases, including 60 cases of local transmission, the Center for Health Protection (CHP) said on Monday. 

Among the new infections, 19 are of unknown origin, the CHP said.

A woman who returned to Japan from Britain on December 13 has been confirmed as the latest person to have contracted the novel coronavirus variant linked to the UK, Japan's Health Ministry said on Sunday.

The patient has been hospitalized since Tuesday, and no one had close contact with her, the ministry said.

A total of eight people have so far been confirmed to be infected with the new variant, including an airline pilot who returned from London on December 16 and a woman in his family who has no history of visiting Britain.

Three communities in Shenyang City, northeast China's Liaoning Province have upgraded their COVID-19 risk level to medium and taken corresponding control measures, local authorities said on Monday.

The city reported on Saturday three new locally transmitted cases related to one case from overseas. The case's all close contacts have tested negative for COVID-19, but remain in quarantine.

China is eyeing price cuts for medicine as part of a national list for drug reimbursement, including a number of drugs used for COVID-19 treatment, the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) said on Monday.

Prices for over 100 drugs are now covered on the drug reimbursement list after negotiating substantial price reductions, Xiong Xianjun, director of management at NHSA told reporters.

"The latest round of negotiations targeted 162 medicines, including 138 new additions to the list," Xiong said, adding that the prices of 119 medicines have been decreased after talks, 96 of which were not included in the list before.

"Prices of these drugs have decreased about 50 percent on average," Xiong added.

Established in 2000, the National Reimbursement Drug List is aimed at reducing prices in order to better benefit patients.

After these negotiations, there are now over 2,800 medications covered by the list. "Of the 2,800 medicines on the list, there are 1,000 Western medicines and Chinese patented medicines each, after prices were set," the director continued.

Noting that the entire negotiation process took place on August 17, Xiong briefed reporters this round of negotiations included representation from the most categories of drugs, and the widest treatment area, with 31 clinical groups involved, accounting for 86 percent of clinical groups.

The administration says Chinese citizens can use their state medical insurance to cover a significant amount of the cost of listed drugs, after reductions take effect on March 1, 2021.

Over 94,000 people tested in Beijing's Xicheng District since Saturday (December 26) received a negative result for the novel coronavirus, district officials said on Monday morning.

The tests, which were carried out after one asymptomatic case was detected in the district last week, targeted people in catering, cold-chain logistics, delivery services and clinics.

The asymptomatic carrier was a male restaurant cold-chain staffer. 

Canada confirmed two more COVID-19 variant cases Sunday evening, bringing the country's total variant cases to four.

One case was discovered in British Columbia and the other in Ontario, according to public health authorities in the two provinces.

On Saturday, Canada confirmed two cases of the variant in Ontario's Durham Region. 

The country banned all flights arriving from Britain from December 20 until January 6, 2021, in response to concerns about a COVID-19 variant.

COVID-19 cases had surpassed 550,000 in Canada, with the total hitting 552,020, including 14,963 deaths, as of Sunday afternoon, according to local television network CTV. 

South Korea reported on Monday its first cases of the new coronavirus variant, initially identified in the UK. The new variant was found in three people who had entered the country from London on December 22, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. 

The new variant has been linked to the rapid rise in infections in Britain and has been identified in several other countries - Australia, Denmark, Italy, Iceland, the Netherlands, Singapore and Japan. 

The KDCA said the three people, from the same family, tested positive for COVID-19 after landing and were immediately quarantined. 

The agency on Monday said 808 new cases and 11 additional deaths were recorded over the past 24 hours, taking the country's total infections to 57,680 and deaths to 819.

South Korea's health authorities also announced that a ban on flights arriving from the UK will be extended for another week.

The ban was initially due to expire at the end of the year.

Hamilton Mourao, Brazil's vice president, has tested positive for the coronavirus, his office said on Sunday, making him the latest in a long line of senior Brazilian officials to contract the virus.

In a statement, Mourao's office said he tested positive on Sunday afternoon and that he will self-isolate in Jaburu, his official residence.

Brazil's health ministry on Sunday reported 344 new COVID-19 deaths and 18,479 new novel coronavirus cases.

The South American nation now has nearly 7.5 million confirmed cases and a total of 191,139 deaths, according to the health ministry's figures.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday signed a massive COVID-19 relief and spending package bill into law, the White House said.

The $2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package, which includes $1.4 trillion in spending to fund government agencies, will extend benefits to millions of Americans struggling with the pandemic and also avert a partial federal government shutdown.

Unemployment benefits being paid out to about 14 million people through pandemic programs lapsed on Saturday, but will be restarted now that Trump has signed the bill.

"As President, I have told Congress that I want far less wasteful spending and more money going to the American people in the form of $2,000 checks per adult and $600 per child," a statement from the president said after the signing. "Much more money is coming. I will never give up my fight for the American people!"

It's not immediately clear why the president reversed course on the deal, but doing so before a Monday night deadline avoided the government shutdown.

Trump had been criticized over the weekend for initially refusing to sign the much-needed COVID-19 relief package which was overwhelmingly passed by Congress following months of negotiations. 

He has repeatedly demanded Congress change the bill to increase the size of stimulus checks for struggling Americans to $2,000 from $600 and blasted the relief bill as "a disgrace."

Democrats are on board with the $2,000 payments but some Republicans have opposed them. Many economists agree the financial aid in the bill should be higher to get the economy moving again but say that immediate support for Americans hit by coronavirus lockdowns is still urgently needed.

President-elect Joe Biden, due to be sworn in on January 20 after beating Trump in November's election, had warned of "devastating consequences" on Saturday if the president continued his refusal to sign the bill.

White House officials have been tight-lipped about Trump's thinking but a source familiar with the situation said some advisers had urged him to relent because they did not see the point of refusing.

"Good news on COVID Relief Bill. Information to follow!" Trump said in a cryptic message on Twitter earlier on Sunday evening, without offering further information.

(With input from agencies)

The Chinese mainland on Sunday recorded 21 new COVID-19 cases, including six locally transmitted in northeast China's Liaoning Province, the National Health Commission announced on Monday.

Twenty new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 267 asymptomatic patients remained under medical observation.

No COVID-19 deaths were registered on Sunday. Meanwhile, 16 patients were discharged from hospital. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China reached 86,976, and the death toll stood at 4,634.

The total number of confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region were as follows:

Hong Kong: 8,610 (7,474 recoveries, 137 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 785 (653 recoveries, 7 deaths)

South Africa's COVID-19 caseload surpassed the one million mark on Sunday as the country continued to see a steady surge in virus numbers.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize reported 9,502 new infections from tests conducted over the past 24 hours, taking the country's total number of cases to 1,004,413.

South Africa has been hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, with twice as many cases as Morocco, the second worst hit country on the continent with 432,079 cases.

Its death toll from COVID-19, with 26,735 deaths, is also more than three times the number registered by Egypt, whose 7,352 fatalities are the second highest in Africa.

Mkhize urged South Africans to "adhere to non-pharmaceutical interventions to prevent the further spread of the virus."

The number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have surpassed the 19 million mark, according to the latest data from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

By Sunday morning local time, the country had registered 19,000,572 infections, more than 8.8 million more than the tally reported by India, whose cases are second-highest globally.

The JHU data also showed that the U.S. had reported 332,145 COVID-19 related deaths.

The U.S. now accounts or 23.60 percent of the world's COVID-19 infections and 18.87 percent of its deaths.

The global caseload has exceeded the 80.49 million mark, while the death toll has topped the 1.76 million mark.

Africa's number of confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to 2,644,112 on Sunday as the countries on the continent continue to record steady rises in their caseloads.

The figure was confirmed by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), which also noted that the number of COVID-19 related deaths stood at 62,366.

South Africa is the worst-affected African country by the pandemic, having registered 994,911 cases and 26,521 fatalities.

The country's virus caseload is more than twice the number reported by the second hardest-hit African state.

Morocco's 430,562 infections are the second-highest while its 7,204 deaths are the third-highest on the continent.

The only other country's that have reported more than 100,000 COVID-19 cases are Egypt (131,315), Tunisia (130,230) and Ethiopia (122,413).

A total of ten countries in Africa have recorded more than 1,000 virus-related fatalities.

The Africa CDC data also showed that the continent had recorded 2,212,975 successful recoveries.

The new variant of the coronavirus linked to a rapid rise in infections in Britain has been detected on the Portuguese island of Madeira, the regional civil protection authority said on Sunday.

In a statement, the authority said the new variant was "detected in travelers who arrived in Madeira from the United Kingdom," but it did not specify how many people were infected with it.

Ten communities in Dalian City, northeast China's Liaoning Province have upgraded the coronavirus risk level to medium and implemented corresponding control measures, the local authorities said on Sunday. 

Dalian reported four new COVID-19 cases and two new asymptomatic cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of infections in the city to 28 since December 15, while 24 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China announced the suspension of scheduled passenger flights between the Chinese mainland and the United Kingdom from Monday to avoid the spread of the new variant of the coronavirus.

The suspension will last until January 10, 2021.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin earlier on Thursday announced the suspension of flights to and from the UK due to the discovery of new virus strain. 

Wang said the move comes after a full assessment and taking into account the practices of other countries to protect the health of Chinese and foreign personnel.

Two villages in Beijing's Shunyi District have upgraded their coronavirus risk level to medium, local authorities said on Sunday, after five new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in the district on Saturday. 

A total of 424 close contacts of the five cases were traced. As of 3:00 p.m. BJT on Sunday, medical workers had taken throat swab samples from a total of 838,270 people in Shunyi District; so far 389,294 of the tests have come back negative.

Three areas in Beijing have lifted their coronavirus risk levels to medium.

In the past 14 days, a total of nine cases have been reported in Beijing, said authorities. 

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has reported 70 new COVID-19 cases, including 69 cases of local transmission, the Center for Health Protection (CHP) said on Sunday. 

Among the new infections, 23 are of unknown origin, the CHP said.

The city of Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province reported one asymptomatic case of COVID-19 on Sunday, local authorities said.

The 27-year-old patient, surnamed Wang, was on business trips in Beijing from December 7-12 and December 21-25. He tested positive on Sunday morning.

A total of 57 close contacts of Wang have been traced and will start medical observation.

101-year-old Edith Kwoizalla became the first person to be immunized in Germany only hours after the country received its shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Member states of the European Union are receiving their COVID-19 vaccines on Saturday. The rollout follows the EU's approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on December 21.

The novel coronavirus has been found on packaging of frozen shrimp imported from Ecuador in Xiangyang City, central China's Hubei Province, local health authorities announced on Sunday.

The nucleic acid tests came back weak positive after some imported Ecuadorian shrimp packaging was tested for the virus, the authorities said.

The goods have been sealed and relevant people quarantined for observation, officials added.

Further epidemiological investigation is underway.

Health officials in Ontario on Saturday said two confirmed cases of the new coronavirus variant first detected in the United Kingdom had appeared in the Canadian province.

Scientists said the variant is about 40-70 percent more transmissible than the original strain. Several other countries, including Australia, Italy and the Netherlands, say they have also detected cases of the new strain.

The Canadian cases, identified in a couple in southern Ontario with no known travel history, exposure or high-risk contact, came as the province went into a lockdown on Saturday.

"This further reinforces the need for Ontarians to stay home as much as possible and continue to follow all public health advice, including the provincewide shutdown measures beginning today," Dr Barbara Yaffe, Ontario's associate chief medical officer, said in a statement.

Ontario reported 4,301 new cases over the past two days, with the province seeing more than 2,000 cases per day for 12 consecutive days.

Last week, Canada extended to January 6 a ban on passenger flights arriving from Britain and expanded enhanced screening and monitoring measures to travelers arriving from South Africa, citing the rise of the more infectious variant.

Scientists say there is no evidence that vaccines currently being deployed – including one made by Pfizer and BioNtech – or other COVID-19 shots in development will not protect against this variant.

Canada began rolling out the Pfizer vaccine earlier this month and started distributing Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine across the country last Thursday.

Canada has so far reported 541,616 cases of COVID-19, including 14,800 deaths.

The Chinese mainland on Saturday recorded 22 new COVID-19 cases, including 10 from overseas and 12 locally transmitted, the National Health Commission announced on Sunday.

The 12 locally transmitted cases include seven in northeast China's Liaoning Province and five in Beijing.

Fifteen new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 251 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.

No COVID-19 deaths were registered on Saturday. Meanwhile, 16 patients were discharged from the hospital. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China has reached 86,955, and the death toll stood at 4,634.

The total confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 8,540 (7,394 recoveries, 136 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 783 (647 recoveries, 7 deaths)

Global COVID-19 cases surpassed 80 million on Saturday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The global case count reached 80,070,327, with a total of 1,753,839 deaths worldwide as of 12:22 p.m. EST (1722 GMT), the CSSE data showed.

The United States reported the most cases and deaths worldwide, with 18,794,545 cases and 330,509 deaths. India recorded 10,169,118 cases, ranking second in the world. Brazil followed India with 7,448,560 cases and the world's second-largest death toll of 190,488.

Countries with more than two million cases also include Russia, France, Britain, Turkey and Italy. Meanwhile, countries with over 50,000 deaths include India, Mexico, Italy, Britain, France, Iran and Russia, according to the CSSE tally.

Global cases hit 50 million on November 8, topped 60 million on November 25 and surpassed 70 million on December 11. 

It took 17 days for the global caseload to jump from 50 million to 60 million, 16 days from 60 million to 70 million and only 15 days from 70 million to 80 million.

The United States remains the worst-hit nation, accounting for more than 23 percent of the global cases.

U.S. experts warned there could be a post-holiday surge given the considerable amount of travelers nationwide during the Christmas season. 

London streets are empty as millions in the UK face new COVID-19 restrictions after officials detected a new variant of the virus spreading.

All non-essential businesses are closed and only essential travel is allowed.

Health officials believe the new variant spreads quicker.

Other countries are already confirming new cases of the variant.

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Brazil's COVID-19 death toll rose to 190,488 on Friday after 482 more patients died from the virus in the previous 24 hours.

Tests detected 22,967 more infections, raising the nationwide tally to 7,448,560, said the Ministry of Health.

Brazil has a COVID-19 mortality rate of 91 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, and its case rate stands at 3,544 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Currently, 13 of Brazil's 27 states are seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases.

In Rio de Janeiro, the country's main tourism destination, authorities have canceled a traditional New Year's Eve celebration on Copacabana Beach, which usually attracts millions of visitors each year.

The Latin American nation has the world's second highest COVID-19 death toll, second only to the United States, and the third largest caseload, after the United States and India.

The number of COVID-19 infections in Africa reached 2,623,086 on Saturday as countries on the continent ready themselves for the impending arrival of vaccines.

According to figures from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the continent's death toll has hit 61,954.

South Africa remains to be the hardest-hit African country by the pandemic, having registered 983,359 cases and 26,276 deaths.

Morocco has reported the continent's second-highest caseload, which is less than half the number reported by South Africa.

The North African country has registered 428,193 confirmed infections and 7,170 fatalities.

Only three other countries on the continent have reported more than 100,000 cases; Egypt (130,126), Tunisia (128,578) and Ethiopia (121,880).

A total of 10 African countries have recorded more than 1,000 COVID-19 related deaths.

The Afrrica CDC data also showed that by Saturday, the continent had registered 2,194,385 recoveries.

The number of COVID-19 infections in Kenya rose by 130 on Saturday, taking the country's caseload to 95,843.

The figures were published by the ministry of health, which also noted that two patients had lost their lives to the disease, bringing the East African country's total death toll to 1,655.

Kenya's caseload is the eighth-highest in Africa, only shadowed by tallies recorded by South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Libya and Algeria.

Its death toll is the sixth-highest on the continent.

The ministry of health also announced that 187 people had recovered in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 76,998.

Japan on Saturday decided to ban the entry of most foreign nationals, except the ones from the Chinese mainland, Vietnam, Singapore and other regions that have managed to bring COVID-19 under control, from December 28 to the end of January following the detection of a new variant of the novel coronavirus in arrivals from Britain.

Chinese visitors are allowed to enter Japan without a nucleic acid test certificate, and those with short-term non-business visas are required to take a 14-day quarantine upon arrival, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare told CCTV, adding that visitors cannot take public transport after arriving in Japan.

The country has experienced a surge that now includes the new, fast-spreading strain. It reported 3,877 new cases of the coronavirus as of 8:00 p.m. local time on Saturday, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 219,142, according to NHK. 

Tokyo itself saw another record of 949 new cases on Saturday, just as Japan heads into the New Year holiday that normally sees people stream from the capital city into provinces.

The country on Friday reported its first cases of a fast-spreading variant in passengers arriving from Britain, which has also been detected in a man who visited the UK and a family member – the first cases of infected people found outside airport checks – Nippon TV reported on Saturday. 

Tokyo transport hubs were subdued, local media said, a day after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, under pressure as cases continue to climb, urged the nation to stay home and avoid social mixing. 

With New Year celebrations centered around family gatherings and mass visits to temples and shrines, experts have warned moderation will be essential to prevent infection rates from rising further amid concerns of pandemic fatigue.

Spain reported four confirmed cases of a new coronavirus variant on Saturday, local health authorities said.

All four cases involved people who recently flew in from the UK, where a new variant recently emerged, according to the Madrid regional government.

Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows Spain has registered 1,854,951 confirmed coronavirus cases and 49,824 deaths from the disease.

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Friday recorded 59 new COVID-19 cases, including 53 cases of local transmission, according to the Centre for Health Protection (CHP).

Among the new infections, 26 have an unknown origin, the CHP said.

Russia registered 29,258 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking its total to 3,021,964, the country's COVID-19 response center said Saturday. 

Five positive cases were detected among the close contacts of two confirmed COVID-19 patients in Beijing, according to local health authorities on Saturday. 

The capital city reported two more confirmed cases in its Shunyi District on Friday.  

The district has entered "wartime" mode following the cases and is planning to conduct nucleic acid testing for 800,000 people, said an official of the district at a press conference. Samples of 119,918 people have been collected in the district so far. 

The Chinese mainland on Friday recorded 20 new COVID-19 cases, including 12 from overseas and eight locally transmitted, the National Health Commission announced on Saturday.

The eight locally transmitted cases include six in northeast China's Liaoning Province and two in Beijing.

Nineteen new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 245 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.

No COVID-19 deaths were registered on Friday. Meanwhile, 12 patients were discharged from hospital. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China has reached 86,933 and the death toll stood at 4,634.

The total confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 8,481 (7,317 recoveries, 136 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 780 (640 recoveries, 7 deaths)

Northeastern China's Liaoning Province reported six new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Friday, according to local health authorities. 

One is in Shenyang City and five are in Dalian City. Two more asymptomatic cases were also reported in the province on Friday. 

On the same day, Beijing reported two more confirmed cases in its Shunyi District.

France on Friday reported its first confirmed case of the new coronavirus variant that recently emerged in Britain, according to the health ministry.

The person arrived from London on December 19 and was tested in hospital on December 21. He is asymptomatic and self-isolating at home in Tours in central France, the ministry said.

Five people who have returned to Japan from the U.K. have tested positive with a mutated form of COVID-19 that is said to spread more easily, which was the first such case in the country, the health ministry said Friday.

Japan confirmed a record 3,748 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the third consecutive day above 3,000.

Panlong District in Kunming City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, reported an imported COVID-19 case on Thursday, local authorities said on Friday. 

The 27-year-old patient, surnamed Zhang, arrived in Chengdu City in southwest China's Sichuan Province from the Philippines on September 29 and was in quarantine after being confirmed as an asymptomatic case. Zhang was released on December 10 after testing negative four times. Zhang returned to Kunming on December 11 and tested positive again on Thursday, authorities said.

The communities the patient visited in Kunming have been closed-off.

China's northeastern port city of Dalian has sampled over 4.75 million people for nucleic acid tests in a citywide health screening in the wake of newly emerged COVID-19 cases, local authorities said Friday.

Over 3.13 million of them have tested negative and the rest of the results are yet to arrive, according to the municipal health commission.

As of Thursday, Dalian had reported a total of 19 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since four cold-chain workers first tested positive on December 15. The city started to conduct tests on all its citizens on Tuesday.

Visitors who have been to places outside China over the past 21 days will be put in compulsory quarantine at designated hotels for 21 days upon arrival in Hong Kong, instead of 14 days as previously required, and those who have stayed in South Africa for more than two hours within 21 days will be banned from boarding flights to Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said Friday.

The government also said those who arrived in Hong Kong during December 2-24 and have stayed in places outside China will have to take a test on Day 19 or 20 after arrival and remain in quarantine before test result comes out.

Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) reported 57 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Friday. The new cases included 55 local infections, with 25 cases of unknown origin, according to a CHP press briefing. 

Currently, 940 COVID-19 patients are treated in public hospitals and the community treatment facility at AsiaWorld-Expo, and 54 patients are in critical condition.

The latest CHP data showed the total number of COVID-19 deaths rose by one to 136 in Hong Kong.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga called on citizens on Friday to spend a "silent" New Year to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, of which there have been record-breaking infections on a near-daily basis.

Suga also announced a fresh package of 270 billion yen ($2.61 billion) for institutions treating coronavirus patients, adding that a state of emergency is not required at the moment.

Beijing will tighten COVID-19 control measures as one new asymptomatic case was reported in the capital, authorities said on Friday during a press conference. 

Authorities said they received report of one new asymptomatic case in Chaoyang District on Thursday. The patient, who works for Asiana Airlines, was in Beijing earlier but was tested positive after arriving in South Korea on December 22.

Beijing local authorities immediately contacted the South Korean side and received confirmation on Thursday that the patient was an asymptomatic case.

A total of 43 close contacts of the new cases are under medical observation. At least 4,345 people took swab samples for COVID-19 tests. Primary results showed that 1,684 of them tested negative. 

Authorities said that Beijing will tighten its COVID-19 control measures and called on residents to stay in the city during coming holidays. 

Chen Bei, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing municipal government, said at the press conference that Beijing faces major test as holidays approach with more locally transmitted and asymptomatic cases reported recently in the Chinese mainland.

Chen also urged citizens to cancel trips to high- and medium-risk areas.

The U.S. government will require all air passengers arriving from the United Kingdom to test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of departure starting Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement on Thursday.

Passengers also have to do tests in three to five days after they land in the U.S. and quarantine for seven days at same time, according to the CDC.

Experts from China's National Health Commission are assisting anti-epidemic efforts in the northeastern port city of Dalian amid a COVID-19 outbreak in the city.

The working group, dispatched to the city on Tuesday, consists of 10 experts in the fields of health care management, epidemiology, virology, disease prevention and control, and health emergency.

The experts are taking part in local epidemic prevention and control work, and helping local health authorities carry out laboratory testing and gene sequence analysis and comparison.

A total of 19 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 20 others asymptomatic infections were reported in the city from December 15 to 24.

Manzhouli City in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has seen its number of confirmed COVID-19 cases dropped to zero, the local health commission said on Friday.

No deaths were reported during the recent coronavirus flare-up in the city and no medical workers were infected.

South Korea on Friday reported 1,241 new COVID-19 cases, a daily record, and 17 more deaths in the past 24 hours, including 1,216 local infections, raising the total caseload to 54,770 and death toll to 773, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

Tougher restrictions to stem new cases were taken this week including a ban on social gatherings of more than five people, while ski resorts and tourist spots have been shut in a bid to stop the spread during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The Chinese mainland on Thursday recorded 14 new COVID-19 cases, including seven from overseas and seven locally transmitted, the National Health Commission announced on Friday.

The seven locally-transmitted cases were recorded in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

Seventeen new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 236 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.

No COVID-19 deaths were registered on Thursday. Meanwhile, nine patients were discharged from hospital. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China has reached 86,913 and the death toll stood at 4,634.

The total confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:

Hong Kong: 8,424 (7,203 recoveries, 135 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 776 (635 recoveries, 7 deaths)

The French National Authority for Health said on Thursday it has approved the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for a nationwide roll-out, which can be used for people aged 16 and over.

Health workers and the elderly will be given priority when the vaccination campaign starts on Sunday, the government said.

The U.S. has reported 220,871 new COVID-19 cases and 3,384 more deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total caseload in the country to 18,619,210 with 328,620 deaths as of 6:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Susan Pompeo, the wife of U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, has tested positive for COVID-19, according to Bloomberg. Her husband was in medical quarantine earlier this month after coming into contact with a person who had contracted the virus.

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Thursday announced stricter quarantine measures for visitors from outside China.

Starting Friday, visitors who have been to places outside China over the past 21 days will be put in quarantine for 21 days, instead of the current 14 days, in designated hotels, the HKSAR government said in a statement. 

Three days earlier, Macao SAR announced to take the same measures, but people from the HKSAR are among those to be quarantined for 21 days.

The SAR governments of both Hong Kong and Macao said the new policies have been adopted as the incubation period of the coronavirus in a small minority of patients could be longer than 14 days.

Hong Kong will also deny entry to visitors who have stayed in South Africa for more than two hours over the past 21 days to prevent the import of a new variant of coronavirus. The government imposed a similar ban on visitors from Britain earlier this week.

Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) reported 71 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, taking its total tally to 8,424.

The new cases included 61 local infections, with 30 cases of unknown origin, according to a CHP press briefing. Three out of the 10 cases from overseas were from Britain. There were also about 50 preliminary cases.

According to Hong Kong's Hospital Authority, 66 percent of negative pressure beds in the city are now occupied. Currently, 985 COVID-19 patients are being treated in public hospitals and community treatment facility at AsiaWorld-Expo, and 61 are in critical condition. The city's death toll stands at 135.

(With input from Xinhua)

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the African continent has reached 2,570,886 as of Thursday afternoon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Thursday.

The continental disease control and prevention agency said in a statement that the death toll from the pandemic stood at 60,882, while a total of 2,157,742 people infected with COVID-19 have recovered across the continent as of Thursday afternoon.

The most affected African countries in terms of the number of positive cases include South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, and Ethiopia, figures from the Africa CDC showed.

South Africa currently has the most COVID-19 cases, which hit 954,258.

Morocco comes next with 423,214 confirmed COVID-19 cases, followed by Egypt with 127,972 confirmed cases and Ethiopia with 120,989 confirmed cases, the Africa CDC said.

Serbia's Ana Brnabic became the first prime minister in Europe to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when she received the first dose of Pfizer-BioNtech's vaccine on Thursday.

"I am honored to be the first prime minister in Europe to be vaccinated. Vaccination is a huge step in this fight," she tweeted.

The European Commission gave the green light to using the Pfizer-BioNtech's vaccine earlier this week, making it the first COVID-19 vaccine authorized in the EU.

U.S. House Republicans on Thursday blocked the Democrats' attempt to pass $2,000 COVID-19 stimulus checks after President Donald Trump asked Congress to increase amount of direct payments to Americans.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday she will bring lawmakers back to work Monday to vote on the bill increasing stimulus payments from $600 to $2,000.

Democrats sought to increase direct payments to Americans as part of a coronavirus economic relief initiative, acting on one of Trump's requests. Trump's fellow Republicans, who oppose the higher amount, blocked that effort.

Republicans then moved to change the amount of foreign aid included in the package, seeking to address another one of Trump's complaints. Democrats blocked that request. The House then adjourned for the day.

(With input from Reuters)

Beijing recorded two new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases from Wednesday to 4:00 p.m. local time Thursday, a government spokesperson said on Thursday, adding that the city reported no new locally transmitted cases.

A 34-year-old male was confirmed to have been infected with the coronavirus on Wednesday and is being observed in quarantine in a designated hospital.

The other case of a cold-chain worker was diagnosed on Thursday following a nucleic acid test.

Tracing of close contacts of the pair and disinfection work are underway.

French President Emmanuel Macron has shown no symptoms of coronavirus and has been released from quarantine, the presidential palace said in a statement on Thursday.

Russia reported 29,935 new coronavirus cases and 635 deaths in past 24 hours on Thursday, the most confirmed in one-day tally since the epidemic outbreak, the country's COVID-19 response center said.

The total number of confirmed cases has surpassed 2.96 million and the official death toll stood at 53,096.

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Wednesday recorded 71 new COVID-19 cases, of which 61 were locally transmitted, the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said on Thursday.

Thirty-one cases were of unknown origin, the CHP said. 

A little over 1 million coronavirus cases have been registered in Ukraine as of December 24, with 17,395 deaths and 631,435 recoveries, Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said on Thursday.

A court in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Thursday opened a hearing on a COVID-19 patient for allegedly exposing others to the risk of getting an infection.

The 63-year-old male patient, surnamed Li, was captured by the police on December 20, a little over two days after he escaped hospital without permission while undergoing treatment.

Li refused to disclose his whereabouts during his disappearance. 

According to local media, Li has already passed all relevant tests and his quarantine order has been lifted.

Clinical trials of CoronaVac, coronavirus vaccine developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech, have "reached the efficacy threshold" demanded by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Brazilian institute charged with its production and distribution said on Wednesday. 

Butantan Institute Director Dimas Covas said the vaccine has reached the efficacy threshold that allowed them to seek an emergency use authorization from Brazil's Anvisa regulatory agency. 

The Butantan Institute didn't publish the results of those trials due to a clause in the Sinovac contract forbiddening doing so until all global clinical trials are completed. 

In Brazil, 13,000 volunteers took part in the trials, which were also performed in Turkey, Indonesia and China. 

"Our entire program remains unchanged. The production of doses is continuing in our factory and the immunization campaign will begin as expected on January 25," said Sao Paulo Health Secretary Jean Gorinchteyn. 

The WHO's efficacy threshold is 50 percent but other laboratories, such as Pfizer and BioNTech that are collaborating on a vaccine that has already been administered to thousands of people in the United States and Britain, have reached 90 percent efficacy. 

Covas said the federal government would order 100 million CoronaVac doses, more than double the 46 million initially publicized. 

Brazil has suffered the second largest number of coronavirus deaths in the world after the U.S., with 188,000 dead.

A total of 180,000 people have been vaccinated in south China's Guangdong Province with no serious adverse reactions as of Tuesday, local officials told a press briefing on Thursday.

According to authorities, the shots were given to a key population, including frontline medics and workers in sectors like cold-chain and customs, as well as people who need to work and study abroad.

Guangdong Health Commission chief Duan Yufei said the government would cover the cost of vaccination for a key population in the province.

He said vaccine rollout for the public would follow after the official launch of COVID-19 vaccines under the condition of sufficient production and supply.

South Korea has signed deals with Pfizer and Janssen to purchase COVID-19 vaccines with a plan to start vaccinations in the second quarter of 2021, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Thursday.

Under the contracts, it will bring in six million doses from Janssen and ten million from Pfizer, Chung said during an interagency meeting on the COVID-19 pandemic response.

The government is scheduled to start offering shots of Janssen's vaccine in the second quarter of next year, he added.

Northern Ireland on Wednesday confirmed a positive test for the highly infectious variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in Britain.

Northern Ireland's Department of Health said in a statement that the variant is likely to have been present in the British-run region for a period of time.

There was no evidence to suggest the variant causes more serious illness or a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments, it added.

The new variant of the pandemic SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is spreading rapidly in Britain and prompting high levels of concern among its European neighbors, some of which have cut transport links.

"While virus mutation is not uncommon, the potential of this new strain to spread rapidly is cause for serious concern," Northern Ireland's Chief Medical Officer said in the statement.

Last week, Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, announced that nearly everyone would be subjected to the highest level of restrictions after Christmas as it enters a six-week lockdown in a bid to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Argentina's Health Ministry said Wednesday it has given the controversial Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine "emergency" authorization, making the country the first in Latin America to do so.  

The first shipment of the 25 million doses of the vaccine bought by the Argentine government is due to arrive on Thursday. 

The country also established new requirements for entering and leaving the country by air, starting on Friday through January 8, the Interior Ministry said in a statement issued on Wednesday, in a bid to rein in the coronavirus. 

Only two airports in the country will be authorized for international travel, Ezeiza and San Fernando, both servicing the Buenos Aires capital area. 

The requirements will include the presentation of a negative coronavirus test and the completion of a mandatory seven-day quarantine, the ministry said. 

The latest data from the Ministry of Health reveal 1,555,279 cases of coronavirus in Argentina, with 42,254 deaths from the disease and 1,379,726 people who have recovered. 

The Chinese mainland on Wednesday recorded 17 new COVID-19 cases, including 11 from overseas and six locally transmitted, the National Health Commission announced on Thursday.

The six locally-transmitted cases were recorded in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

Nineteen new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 229 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. 

No COVID-19 deaths were registered on Wednesday. Meanwhile, 22 patients were discharged from hospitals. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 86,899 and the death toll stood at 4,634.

The total confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows: 

Hong Kong: 8,353 (7,112 recoveries, 133 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 776 (635 recoveries, 7 deaths)

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday said members of the city Sheriff's office would start paying home visits to enforce a quarantine order for travelers from the United Kingdom in an effort to stop the spread of a new COVID-19 variant found in that country.

De Blasio said that all international travelers to New York City would start receiving a Department of Health Commissioner's order to quarantine, delivered via certified mail, and travelers could face a $1000 fine per day for violating the rules.

The city Sheriff's office will check on travelers from the UK at their homes or hotels to ensure compliance, de Blasio said, taking extra precaution out of concern that those travelers could bring a new, highly transmissible variant of the virus to New York.

"We're going to provide them with that commissioner's order, but then there's going to be a follow up, direct home visit or hotel visit from the sheriff's deputy to confirm that they are following the quarantine," de Blasio said. 
 

More than a million people have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield said Wednesday.

"The United States achieved an early but important milestone today -- jurisdictions have now reported that more than one million people have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine since the administration began 10 days ago," said Redfield.

In a call with reporters, Moncef Slaoui, chief advisor of the government's Operation Warp Speed, said that the objective of immunizing 20 million people this month was "unlikely to be met." But he said the U.S. was still aiming for 100 million people immunized by the end of the first quarter of 2021 and another 100 million by the second quarter.

Three million doses were delivered last week across the United States, with the first authorized vaccine, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, administered on December 14. The target was to distribute six million vaccine doses by Moderna this week and another two million of Pfizer's.

The U.S. is the world's hardest-hit country and is in the middle of an extreme winter surge. More than 325,000 people have succumbed to the virus, and it will likely be the leading cause of death in 2020 behind heart disease and cancer.

Residents of long-term care facilities and health care workers were at the front of the line, while the next phase is set to target people aged over-75 and critical workers. 

Like many, Carrie Hintzman is tired of COVID-19.

“I want to be able to see my mom, I’ve seen her once since last Christmas,” Hintzman said. “I’m just tired of people dying. Something has just got to be done. We’ve got to fix this. It can’t take away all these people’s lives for nothing.”

Hintzman volunteered to take the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine and got her first shot several months ago.

“I just didn’t even give it a second thought,” she said. “It was like a no brainer for me. It’s like sure I’ll do it. If it helps why not?”

The vaccine combines an inactive chimpanzee cold virus with a coronavirus protein which the body identifies as foreign, prompting antibodies and white blood cells to attack it, thereby building up immunity.

“The reason I like this is some of the preliminary data suggests the white cells have more activation with this particular model,” said Dr. Gary Luckasen. “The other thing is this model has been used for many many years.”

Luckasen is principal investigator for the Colorado portion of the vaccine’s 30,000 ​patient clinical trial ​in the U.S. which got off to a bumpy start.  

“We had one patient put in in August and then we didn’t start again until the end of October,” Luckasen said.

Trials worldwide were halted for a time when one British participant fell ill. Then came word that the first vaccine dose in one subgroup had actually been a half-dose. Not what scientists had in mind.

Study results released earlier this month show the half-dose group did even better than the 70 percent effectiveness measured overall. It’s still unclear how much the vaccine helps those over 55 years old. Regulators are now looking at the data.

“So they’ll give an opinion on that over the weeks and months ahead,” said Andrew Pollard, Oxford Vaccine Group director. “So we’ll have that stamp of approval, I hope, before too long.”

The U.S. ordered 300 million doses of the drug earlier this year. It’s cheaper and easier to store than the two vaccines already in use. 

“Anything we have that makes us have millions more doses is a very positive thing,” Luckasen said.

Once a leading candidate to end the pandemic, Luckasen hopes the trial helps the AstraZeneca vaccine receive Emergency Use Authorization early in the New Year. 1,500 Coloradans will have taken part in the study once enrollment is complete.

“We’re developing a lot of new friends,” Luckasen said chuckling.

Like Hintzman, his very first patient, who doesn’t know if she got the vaccine or a placebo but is sure of one thing:

“I’m tired of wearing the mask too, and not being able to go out with friends and, like I said, see my family is a big part of it,” she said. “The sooner we can get everybody vaccinated the better.”

A process she hopes she’s pushed along. 

CGTN's Hendrik Sybrandy reports from the U.S. state of Colorado where a trial for this vaccine is underway.

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UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced the detection of another new strain of coronavirus believed to have originated from South Africa.

Hancock said all travelers that arrived into the country from South Africa over the past two weeks and their close contacts must isolate immediately.

Britain's transport minister later said he had ordered flights and arrivals from South Africa to be halted.

"I've taken the decision to temporarily stop flights and arrivals entering England from South Africa from 9 a.m. tomorrow following an outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus," Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tweeted.

"British & Irish Nationals, visa holders and permanent residents arriving from South Africa will be able to enter but are required to self-isolate for ten days along with their household," Shapps said. "Visitors from South Africa will not be permitted to enter, to stop the spread of COVID-19."

This second variant of the virus – called 501.V2 – is the second mutated strain to be announced by the UK Government in as many weeks.

Hancock said the new version is even "more transmissible" and has "mutated further" than the one which emerged in Kent.

The health minister also announced a raft of new restrictions which will see more regions of the country join London in tier four starting midnight Boxing Day on December 26.

(With input from agencies)

The number of COVID-19 related deaths in Africa surpassed the 60,000 mark on Wednesday as countries switch focus to acquisition of vaccines to stop the virus.

According to the latest data from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the continent's total number of reported deaths reached 60,254 by Wednesday afternoon from a caseload of 2,544,950.

South Africa remains the hardest-hit country by the pandemic on the continent, having reported the highest number of infections and deaths.

The country has registered 940,212 confirmed cases and 25,246 fatalities, accounting for 41.9 percent of Africa's death toll and 36.9 percent of the total infections.

Morocco is the second-worst hit country, but has reported less than half the figures recorded by South Africa.

The north African country has registered 420,648 infections and 7,030 fatalities.

Other than the two, the only other African countries that have reported more than 100,000 COVID-19 cases are Egypt (127,061), Tunisia (123,323) and Ethiopia (120,638).

A total of ten countries on the continent have registered more than 1,000 COVID-19 related deaths.

The Africa CDC data also showed that 2,145,138 patients have successfully recovered from the disease.

Pfizer has struck a second agreement with the U.S. government to supply additional 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine by July 2021, the company said on Wednesday.

The agreement brings the total number of doses to be delivered to the United States to 200 million, allowing for 100 million people to be vaccinated.

The government already has a deal with Pfizer for 100 million doses of the vaccine, which are being rolled out across the country after the shot won emergency use authorization earlier this month.

Shenyang City in northeast China's Liaoning Province reported one new case of COVID-19 between midnight Tuesday and 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The patient is in critical condition, local health authorities said.

A new asymptomatic case was also reported during the same period, the authorities added.

A total of 296 confirmed cases have been reported in the province so far, including two deaths, while 22 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. 

The Japanese government said Wednesday it will tighten its border controls on arrivals from Britain with the new measures coming into effect from Thursday, in response to the new, highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus found there.

"We have decided to swiftly take action to thoroughly prevent the spread of the virus within Japan and make people feel safe," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a regular press conference on the matter.

Kato said that Japanese nationals arriving from Britain from Sunday will be required to provide proof that they have tested negative for the coronavirus within 72 hours of departing from Britain.

Proof of the test will have to be submitted to officials before entry is granted.

Foreign residents of Japan who have to take a COVID-19 test as a condition of entering the country, will be required to download the health ministry's contact tracing app and retain their location data.

Both Japanese and foreign residents who take short business trips of up to seven days to Britain will be asked to self-quarantine for 14 days when they return home or enter Japan, under the new restrictions.

Tourists remain barred from entering the country.

East China's Zhejiang Province reported one new COVID-19 infection in Ningbo City that came from Beijing. The patient tested positive on Tuesday and remains asymptomatic, local authorities said on Wednesday.

The epidemiological investigation of the infection is underway.

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has reported 53 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 47 locally-transmitted infections, the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said on Wednesday. 

The origin of 20 cases remains unknown, the CHP official added.

The northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang has entered "wartime" mode as a female in the city has tested positive for the novel coronavirus following a trip to South Korea, the local health commission said on Wednesday.

The commission said the 67-year-old woman was put under medical observation upon her arrival in Shenyang on November 29, noting that the result of her initial nucleic test for the coronavirus was negative after the 14-day quarantine.

The patient was confirmed to be infected with the virus on Wednesday and has been taken to a local hospital.

Tracing her close contacts and disinfection work are underway.

The South Korean government has decided to temporarily halt flights to and from the UK until the end of the year to stem the spread of a new coronavirus variant, Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday.

The country will also order a 14-day quarantine for all international arrivals from Britain, and conduct an additional virus testing after the quarantine is lifted, the report said.

South Korea joined a growing list of countries and regions around the world banning travels from the UK after a new variant of the coronavirus was identified in the country that could be up to 70 percent more transmissible.

The country's number of new daily cases climbed above 1,000 for the first time in three days on Wednesday, adding 1,092 more cases, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). So far, it has reported a total of 52,550 cases.

Seventeen more people died due to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the country's death toll to 739.

China's Sichuan Airlines has banned travelers from the UK who are transferring in another country to China for COVID-19 prevention and control, according to an official statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wanted Congress to amend the $892 billion coronavirus relief bill to raise the amount of stimulus checks and eliminate wasteful spending, among other issues.

U.S. government operations are being funded on a temporary basis through December 28, waiting for the $1.4 trillion in federal spending for fiscal 2021 that is also part of the bill.

Failure to either pass another substitute bill or override a possible veto of the legislation by the president could result in a partial government shutdown, which could delay the bipartisan effort in Congress to provide help for people whose lives have been upended by the pandemic.

"The bill they are now planning to send back to my desk is much different than anticipated," Trump said in a video posted on Twitter. "It really is a disgrace."

The U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate both passed the legislation on Monday night.

Trump urged Congress to increase the amount in the stimulus checks to $2,000 for individuals or $4,000 for couples, instead of the "ridiculously low" $600 for individuals in the bill.

Trump also complained about money provided for foreign countries, the Smithsonian Institution and fish breeding, among other spending that is in the part of the legislation to fund the U.S. government.

"I'm also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation, and to send me a suitable bill, or else the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package. And maybe that administration will be me," said Trump.

Trump, who will leave office on January 20 when President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in, did not use the word "veto" in his statement.

The 92-6 vote in the Senate and the 359-53 vote in the House both are well over the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto, though some Republicans might avoid overriding a veto if Trump used that power.

The bill can be amended if congressional leadership wants to do so. If they don't, Trump's choices are to sign the bill into law, veto it, or do nothing and let it become law.

If the bill is amended, doing so by December 28 could be very difficult. It took months for the parties to agree to the thousands of elements in not only the coronavirus aid part, but the $1.4 trillion agreement to fund much of the U.S. government.

Even if leadership wants to amend the bill, it still would have to be voted upon by the full House and Senate. Also, many Republicans might balk at the $2,000 direct payments because that would boost the cost of the bill to well over $1 trillion.

Two years ago, a record-long, 35-day government shutdown was sparked when Congress sent Trump a government spending bill it thought he would support, only to see him reject it over what he said was insufficient funding for building his vaunted U.S.-Mexico border wall.

White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's intentions.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a tweet that Republicans would not say during negotiations what amount Trump wanted the stimulus checks to be. She said Democrats are ready to bring his proposal for $2,000 checks to the House floor for a vote this week. She did not address Trump's other concerns.

(With input from Reuters)

The Chinese mainland on Tuesday recorded 15 new COVID-19 cases, including 14 from overseas and one locally transmitted, the National Health Commission announced on Wednesday.

The locally transmitted case was recorded in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

Fourteen new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 219 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. 

No COVID-19 deaths were registered on Tuesday. Meanwhile, nine patients were discharged from hospitals. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 86,882, with 4,634 deaths.

The total confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows: 

Hong Kong: 8,300 (6,995 recoveries, 132 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries) 

Taiwan: 770 (632 recoveries, 7 deaths)

French citizens and Europeans traveling from the United Kingdom will be allowed to enter France if they have a negative COVID-19 test result from Wednesday, the French Prime Minister's Office said.

British citizens or citizens from third countries who have legal residence in France or elsewhere in the European Union can also enter or transit the country from Britain if they have a negative COVID-19 test, the office said in a statement.

The government listed several categories of people to whom this would be applicable, including those in transit for less than 24 hours in international zones, diplomats and their families, health workers, airline staff, and bus or train operators.

Rail, air and sea services would resume from Wednesday morning, the UK Department for Transport said late on Tuesday, with all people traveling from the UK into France required to show proof of a negative test taken within the last 72 hours.

France had closed its border with Britain amid fears of the spread of a new virus strain, with no lorries or ferry passengers able to sail from the port of Dover.

(With input from agencies)

The European Commission recommended on Tuesday that EU member states lift the blanket bans some have imposed on arrivals from Britain to allow essential journeys to resume. "Flight and train bans should be discontinued given the need to ensure essential travel and avoid supply chain disruptions," a statement from the EU executive said.

In a statement on Tuesday, the commission said that freight transport to and from the UK must be allowed to continue uninterrupted but that any unnecessary journeys should be avoided "until further notice." 

France shut down freight traffic from Dover in southeast England at midnight on Sunday. Spain and Portugal, meanwhile, are among more than 40 countries restricting flights and effectively isolating the UK. 

President Emmanuel Macron's health situation remains stable after he contracted COVID-19 last week, the French presidency said.

The Chinese Visa Application Service Center in London has closed from Tuesday until further notice amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and no visa or legalization applications will be accepted during closure.

The UK has warned that the new virus strain could be up to 70 percent more infectious, prompting its European neighbors and other countries to close their doors to travelers from the country.

The co-founder of BioNTech said Tuesday it was "highly likely" that its vaccine against the coronavirus works against the mutated strain detected in Britain, but it could also adapt the vaccine if necessary in six weeks.

"Scientifically, it is highly likely that the immune response by this vaccine also can deal with the new virus variant," said BioNTech CEO and co-founder Ugur Sahin. But if needed, "in principle the beauty of the messenger technology is that we can directly start to engineer a vaccine which completely mimics this new mutation – we could be able to provide a new vaccine technically within six weeks." 

The new variant, which UK scientists have named "VUI – 202012/01", includes a mutation in the viral genome region encoding the spike protein, which – in theory – could result in COVID-19 spreading more easily between people. 

Some preliminary reports in the UK said the variant was around 40 to 70 percent more transmissible than the dominant version.

As of December 13, a day before the UK notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the new variant, a total of 1,108 confirmed cases were recorded in the country. 

Read more:

New COVID-19 strain prompts UK government to tighten restrictions

Earlier, U.S. company Moderna also said it's testing its vaccine against the new variant.

"Based on the data to date, we expect that the Moderna vaccine-induced immunity would be protective against the variants recently described in the UK; we will be performing additional tests in the coming weeks to confirm this expectation," Moderna said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) will convene a meeting of members to discuss strategies to counter the new variant, its European chief Hans Kluge said on Tuesday.

"In response @WHO_Europe to convene member states to discuss strategies for testing, reducing transmission & communicating risks," Kluge tweeted. "Limiting travel to contain spread is prudent until we have better info. Supply chains for essential goods & essential travel should remain possible." 

(With input from agencies)

The 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships have been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the table tennis world's governing body International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) announced on Tuesday.

The world championships were originally scheduled to take place this March in Busan but was postponed three times in light of the pandemic with the most recent scheduled date set in February 2021.

However, it was eventually scrapped all together on Tuesday by ITTF who cited the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the country in recent days as the main reason.

"With a 2021 calendar that now includes the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, it was not feasible to postpone for a fourth time," said ITTF in a statement.

"It was also noted that the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships will be held after the Olympics and a process put in place to finalize the details of that event to be announced in January."

Like all other sports, the table tennis has been affected significantly by the pandemic; however, the success of the #RESTART series in China in November to kickstart the return for the sport put a positive tone for the chucked season.

Germany on Tuesday extended a ban on arrivals from Britain and South Africa until January 6 after a new more infectious coronavirus strain was detected in the two countries. 

"The transport ban covers passenger traffic by train, bus, ship and flights directly from these countries," the health ministry said in a statement, adding "The order covers the period from December 22, 2020 until January 6, 2021." Those with valid residency permits for Germany could return from January 1.

A handful of countries including the Netherlands, Panama, Turkey and Guatemala have also blocked or restricted entry of travelers from South Africa after a new genetic mutation of COVID-19 was found there and is believed to be responsible for a recent surge in infections.

The new variant, currently termed 501.V2 variant, was discovered in the Eastern Cape and also affects Kwazulu-Natal and the Western Cape.

Authorities in Dalian City in northeast China's Liaoning Province launched a citywide nucleic acid testing campaign after two new locally COVID-19 cases were reported on Monday.

The testing began on Tuesday and will continue for three days, with the aim of testing all residents in the city, said authorities.

Passengers with plans to fly out of the city need to provide a negative nucleic acid test result within seven days, the city's airport said in a statement.

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Monday reported 63 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 53 locally-transmitted infections, the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said on Tuesday. 

The origin of 13 cases remains unknown, the CHP official added.

As of Monday, Hong Kong have registered a total of 8,300 cases.

Meanwhile, an 86-year-old male patient passed away on Tuesday at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, taking the city's death toll to 128. 

China's Taiwan region on Tuesday reported its first locally transmitted case of COVID-19 since April 12, according to local media.

The new COVID-19 patient is a close contact of another confirmed case, the report said.

The U.S. Congress passed a long-awaited COVID-19 stimulus package of $900 billion on Monday night, along with funding of $1.4 trillion to keep the government running through the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2021.

The bill now goes to President Donald Trump to sign into law.

The World Health Organization (WHO) cautioned against major alarm over a new, highly infectious variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in Britain, saying this is a normal part of a pandemic's evolution.

WHO officials even put a positive light on the discovery of the new strains that prompted a slew of alarmed countries to impose travel restrictions on Britain and South Africa, saying new tools to track the virus were working.

"We have to find a balance. It's very important to have transparency, it's very important to tell the public the way it is, but it's also important to get across that this is a normal part of virus evolution," WHO emergencies chief Mike Ryan told an online briefing.

"Being able to track a virus this closely, this carefully, this scientifically in real-time is a real positive development for global public health, and the countries doing this type of surveillance should be commended."

Citing data from Britain, WHO officials said they had no evidence that the variant made people sicker or was more deadly than existing strains of COVID-19, although it did seem to spread more easily.

Countries imposing travel curbs were acting out of an abundance of caution while they assess risks, Ryan said, adding: "That is prudent. But it is also important that everyone recognizes that this happens, these variants occur."

WHO officials said coronavirus mutations had so far been much slower than with influenza and that even the new UK variant remained much less transmissible than other diseases like mumps.

They said vaccines developed to combat COVID-19 should handle the new variants as well, although checks were underway to ensure this was the case.

"So far, even though we have seen a number of changes, a number of mutations, none has made a significant impact on either the susceptibility of the virus to any of the currently used therapeutics, drugs or the vaccines under development and one hopes that will continue to be the case," WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told the briefing.

The WHO said it expects to get more detail within days or weeks on the potential impact of the highly transmissible new coronavirus strain.

The Chinese mainland on Monday recorded 15 new COVID-19 cases, including two locally transmitted in northeast China's Liaoning Province, the National Health Commission announced on Tuesday. 

Seventeen new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 214 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.  

No COVID-19 deaths were registered on Monday. Meanwhile, nine patients were discharged from hospitals. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 86,867, with 4,634 deaths.

The total confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:  

Hong Kong: 8,237 (6,910 recoveries, 131 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries)  

Taiwan: 766 (627 recoveries, 7 deaths)

Over half a million people in Britain has received the COVID-19 vaccine in the country, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday.

"Today I can announce that half a million people in the UK have now received their first dose," Johnson said at a news conference.

Earlier this month, the UK became the first country in the world to roll out the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech.

(With input from Reuters)

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Monday received his first coronavirus vaccine shot live on television, becoming the latest major political figure worldwide to be vaccinated.

The 78-year-old incoming president got the Pfizer vaccine at the Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, aiming to boost Americans' confidence in the jabs.

"I'm doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared when it's available to take the vaccine," Mr Biden said from Newark, BBC News reported. 

Biden told Americans "there's nothing to worry about" when they get vaccinated and that in the meantime they should keep wearing masks and "listen to the experts."

This was the first shot in the two-stage Pfizer vaccine and Biden said he was "looking forward" to the follow-up.

He and the future first lady Jill Biden, who was reported to receive the shot earlier in the day, were the latest high-profile political figures, including Vice-President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to receive the jab publicly. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband will be vaccinated next week.

Biden praised the scientists and called medical workers "amazing and incredible." He also said the Trump administration "deserves some credit" for overseeing record-speedy development and production of vaccines.

Distribution of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines began a week ago, and on Monday a second vaccine, this time made by Moderna, went into use. More than 500,000 Americans are said to have been vaccinated.

It's reported that the Biden team has set a goal of 100 million COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S. during the administration's first 100 days in the White House.

But Biden, who spoke through a double mask, cautioned that there was still a long way to go before the inoculations can halt the virus' spread.

"It's worth stating that, you know, this is just the beginning," he said. "It's going to take time."

"In the meantime," he said. "I hope people listen to all the experts talking about the need to wear masks during the holidays. If you don't have to travel, don't travel. It's really important."

The U.S. surpassed 18 million reported COVID-19 cases on Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, as the virus surges nationwide. More than 319,000 Americans died from the virus. 

(With input from agencies)

The Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Monday has agreed to authorize the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by U.S. company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. 

Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said vaccination will start across the EU on December 27, 28 and 29.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday called on the country to step up its vigilance, following the emergence of a new strain of the coronavirus in the UK.

Macron made the remarks while chairing a government ministerial meeting via an audiovisual conference. The president is continuing to work remotely and self-isolating after testing positive for COVID-19 last week.

According to the country's Health Minister Olivier Veran, France will start its COVID-19 vaccination program next Sunday, wrote Veran on his Twitter on Monday.

The French vaccination program will begin with the most vulnerable members of the population, such as the elderly, Veran added.

- India's government said Monday it would suspend all flights from Britain until December 31st after the emergence of a new strain of coronavirus. The suspension will start from Tuesday, the country's aviation ministry said.

- Flights from Britain to Norway will be suspended with immediate effect for a minimum of 48 hours due to concerns over a new strain of coronavirus, the Norwegian health minister said in a statement on Monday.

- Flights from Britain to Denmark will be suspended for 48 hours starting Monday at 09:00 GMT to limit the spread of a new strain of coronavirus, the country's transport minister Benny Engelbrecht said on Twitter early Monday.

China has noted relevant reports and will study carefully to ensure healthy and orderly exchanges between Chinese and foreign personnel based on scientific and proper treatment, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Monday.

Wang made the remarks at a regular press briefing when asked to comment on many countries banning flights from the UK to protect their citizens from the new variant of coronavirus.

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) will halt all passenger flights from the UK starting Tuesday, the first city in Asia to announce such a suspension after a new strain of the novel coronavirus was identified in Britain, local health officials said Monday.

"From midnight there will be no more passenger flights arriving in the HKSAR from the United Kingdom," Health Secretary Sophia Chan told reporters. 

Anyone arriving in the city who has been to the UK in the last 14 days will also have to undergo a longer quarantine, officials said. 

All international passengers to the HKSAR currently have to undergo a two-week mandatory quarantine in a dedicated hotel. Those with a recent travel history in Britain will have to complete their hotel quarantine as well as a further week's isolation at home before being allowed out in public.

Health officials on Monday reported 85 new COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong, including 78 that were locally transmitted. Among the new infections, 27 were from an unknown origin.

The UK has warned that the new strain could be up to 70 percent more infectious, prompting its European neighbors and several other countries including Canada and Iran to close their doors to travelers from the country.

(With input from Reuters, AFP)

Flights from Britain to Poland will be suspended starting from midnight on Monday due to concerns over a new strain of coronavirus, a Polish government spokesman said on Twitter.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Saturday that the new strain had led to spiraling infection numbers. His government tightened its COVID-19 restrictions for London and nearby areas, and also reversed plans to ease restrictions over the Christmas period.

Countries such as France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, El Salvador and Iran have placed restrictions on British travelers and flights in response to Johnson's announcement.

Hong Kong police said they captured on Sunday night a COVID-19 positive patient who had escaped two days earlier from one of the city's hospitals while undergoing treatment.

In a Facebook post, the police said the 63-year-old male patient, surnamed Li, was caught in the neighborhood of Mong Kok at around 11:00 p.m. and sent back to the hospital.

Li left the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Friday afternoon at around 5:00 p.m. without permission, wearing a surgical mask.

According to local media citing health officials, the man had previously tried to escape from isolation and had not been cooperating with medical staff. 

Gatherings of five or more people will be banned in the greater Seoul area over the Christmas and New Year holidays in a new measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 in South Korea, local officials said Monday.

The new order will take effect on Wednesday and last through January 3.

South Korea reported 24 more deaths due to COVID-19 on Monday, a new daily high, raising the death toll to 698, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. 

The country registered 926 new COVID-19 cases, including 892 that were locally transmitted, pushing the total caseload to 50,591. It has reported over 1,000 new daily cases for five consecutive days over the past week. 

Canada on Sunday announced it was suspending flights from the UK for 72 hours over concerns of a new genetic variant of the novel coronavirus.

All commercial and private passenger flights from the UK were to be halted from midnight, the Canadian government said in a statement.

Passengers who arrived in Canada from the UK on Sunday were to be subject to secondary screening and enhanced measures, including "increased scrutiny of quarantine plans," according to the statement.

The government said that "while early data suggest that the United Kingdom variant may be more transmissible, to date there is no evidence that the mutations have any impact on symptom severity, antibody response or vaccine efficacy."

Canada joined a list of European countries that also halted flights from the UK, after a new strain of the coronavirus prompted the UK government to upgrade measures to curb the virus transmission.

Read more:

European nations halt UK travel amid new virus strain fears

The UK government said on Sunday that it would hold a crisis meeting after countries worldwide banned arrivals from the nation over a new highly infectious coronavirus strain it said was "out of control."

To date, a slew of countries, including France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands, have announced a temporary travel ban for the UK.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair the emergency response meeting on Monday to discuss the matter, a spokeswoman for his office said on Sunday.

"The prime minister will chair a COBR (emergency response) meeting tomorrow to discuss the situation regarding international travel, in particular the steady flow of freight into and out of the UK. Further meetings are happening this evening and tomorrow morning to ensure robust plans are in place," the spokeswoman said.

(With input from agencies)

The Chinese mainland on Sunday recorded 23 new COVID-19 cases, two locally transmitted and 21 from overseas, the National Health Commission announced on Monday. 

The two local cases were detected in northeast China's Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces.

Fifteen new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 208 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.  

No COVID-19 deaths were registered on Sunday. Meanwhile, 14 patients were discharged from hospitals. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 86,852, with 4,634 deaths.

The total confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:  

Hong Kong: 8,152 (6,837 recoveries, 130 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries)  

Taiwan: 766 (627 recoveries, 7 deaths)

U.S. lawmakers have reached a deal for a new package to boost the world's largest economy, which has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic, congressional leaders announced Sunday.

"We've agreed to a package of nearly $900 billion. It is packed with targeted policies to help struggling Americans who have already waited too long," Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement.

Calling the bill a "bipartisan breakthrough," McConnell promised that "more help is on the way."

The package would be the second-largest economic stimulus in U.S. history, following a $2.3 trillion aid bill passed in March.

The deal comes as the pandemic accelerates, infecting more than 214,000 people in the country daily. More than 317,000 Americans have already died.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer confirmed the agreement had been reached with Republicans and the White House on a deal that "delivers urgently needed funds to save the lives and livelihoods of the American people as the virus accelerates."

"Finally, we have some good news to deliver to the American people," Schumer said on the Senate floor.

The package is expected to include aid for vaccine distribution and logistics, extra jobless benefits of $300 per week and a new round of $600 stimulus checks – half the amount provided in checks distributed in March under the CARES Act.

Congress was working under a midnight Sunday deadline – needing to reach consensus both on assistance to hard-pressed American households and companies and on the 2021 federal budget to avoid a government shutdown.

No. 2 Democrat in the House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer, said he expected the deal to pass on Monday and then head to the Senate. 

Lawmakers said they had resolved disputes over the Federal Reserve's pandemic lending authority, education funding and small-business lending. "I think it's, for the most part, wrapped up," Republican Senator John Thune told reporters.

Congress aims to include the COVID-19 aid package in a $1.4 trillion spending bill funding government programs through September 2021.

Lawmakers said there may not be enough time to pass the measures before government funding expires at midnight Sunday, which means they would have to pass another temporary extension to keep the government operating.

(With input from agencies)

France and Ireland have joined a growing list of countries that have imposed travel bans curbing arrivals from the U.K. in efforts to curb the importation of a new strain of coronavirus that has been reported in the country.

Other countries that have already announced bans include the Netherlands, Israel, Belgium, Italy and Austria.

Ireland's restrictions on flights and ferries will last for an initial 48 hours before being reviewed during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The ban by France will also last an initial two days and will cover travel by air, road, rail or sea. It takes effect at midnight tonight (Sunday).

The World Health Organization on Saturday said it was "in close contact with U.K. officials on the new COVID-19 virus variant" and promised to provide updates after more information about it is learned.

The new strain was identified in southeastern England in September and has been circulating in the area ever since, a WHO official told the BBC on Sunday.

"What we understand is that it does have increased transmissibility, in terms of its ability to spread," said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on COVID-19.

(With input from agencies)

Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Sunday the country would temporarily ban flights between Italy and Britain, joining Belgium and the Netherlands in taking the dramatic step. The move came after British leaders said they had detected a new and more transmissible strain of the coronavirus.

Via social media, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said his office informed British authorities before taking the step.

"As a government, we have the duty to protect Italians and for this reason, after having warned the British government, the health ministry will sign a provision for the suspension of flights with the UK. Our priority is to protect Italy and our compatriots," Di Maio wrote.

According to Rome airport officials contacted Sunday by Xinhua, at least flights that had already loaded passengers in British or Italian airports were allowed to finish their flights, but that all air traffic between the two countries was "effectively halted" as of Sunday afternoon.

It is not clear how long the block would remain in force in Italy.

The ban on travel to and from Britain will remain in effect in the Netherlands until at least Jan. 1, while the Belgian order will be re-evaluated after 24 hours. The Belgian ban also includes train connections: Brussels (along with Paris) is one of two cities in mainland Europe where the Eurostar network connects with London.

In a statement, the Netherlands said the ban aimed to minimize the risk the new variant would spread "as much as possible."

The bans came after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued strict new lockdown rules for London and parts of England over the next two weeks as the infection rate there surged in recent days. Johnson said the country was suffering from a new variant of the deadly coronavirus that was as much as 70 percent more transmissible than previous variants of the virus.

Johnson said the rules could be extended beyond the original two-week limit if conditions required it. "We bitterly regret that this is necessary," Johnson said during a televised press briefing late Saturday.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the newly-identified strain of the virus was "out of control." But Hancock said that while the new strain was more contagious it was not deadlier than the original variant of the virus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is studying the new variant of the virus in cooperation with Britain and would make the results of its analysis available when completed. In the meantime, the WHO continues "to advise people to take all protective measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus and comply with national authorities' guidance."

According to media reports, Austria, Germany and France are considering similar measures.

According to latest data from Italy's Ministry of Health, Italy has seen nearly 2 million coronavirus infections and nearly 70,000 deaths since the first official cases of the virus appeared in February. Starting in mid-November, the coronavirus infection rate has trended lower, though officials have warned the situation could get worse if health restrictions are not followed.

The development came as vaccines are being developed or approved in Germany, China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, among others, to fight against the virus.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he fully understands "the anxieties" of the UK's international partners about the new variant of COVID-19 discovered in the South East region of England, as countries across the world shut their borders to British travelers. 

He added that he hoped to resolve border issues with France "within hours" after President Macron closed the borders for 48 hours. In the meantime, the EU member states have called on the European Commission to draw up a coordinated response to isolate the mutant variant in the UK. 

Key points: 

• UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he had spoken to France's President Emmanuel Macron and that they were hopeful to resolve border issues "in the next few hours if we can."

• Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Norway and Turkey are among those to stops flights from the UK, while France has temporarily closed its borders with the country.

• UK cases rose by 33,364 on Monday, almost double the figure recorded a week ago, after the health minister described the new COVID-19 variant as "out of control."

• France's travel ban has forced the UK Port of Dover to shut down, leading to long freight queues and possible supply chain disruption. 

• EU member states are asking the European Commission to harmonize a bloc-wide response to the spread of the new variant. 

A growing number of countries have banned flights and other travel from the UK, with other nations considering limiting links to the UK, after it was announced the new variant was "spreading rapidly."

On Saturday, Johnson announced new restrictions for the UK's capital London and its South East region as cases of the new variant surged in those areas. 

Outside Britain, nine cases of the new strain have been reported in Denmark, as well as one case in the Netherlands, Australia, and Italy. Emma Hodcroft, co-founder of nextstrain, which monitors and tracks viruses, tweeted that for the first three, these cases were likely to have been exported from the UK.

The Netherlands government has banned all flights carrying passengers from the UK from Sunday, with travel restrictions to remain in place until at least January 1. It added that it was monitoring developments and could also consider additional measures on other modes of transport.

In early December, the authorities said samples from a case in the Netherlands had revealed the same variant found in the UK.  

Canada halted passenger flights from Britain for 72 hours from midnight on Sunday, with those who had already arrived from Britain subject to screenings and other measures.

Meanwhile, Italy, which found the new strain in one person, has blocked flights from the UK and is blocking the entry of people who have been there during the past 14 days. Anyone who has recently traveled from Britain must also be tested.

Belgium followed suit by issuing a flight ban for 24 hours starting at midnight on Monday "out of precaution," according to the country's Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

"There are many questions about this new mutation," De Croo said, adding that he hopes to have more clarity on the situation by Tuesday. 

Spain and Portugal have suspended flights from the UK from Tuesday, with Madrid only allowing its nationals or residents to enter from Britain.

France has suspended all UK travel links for 48 hours, closing off one of the most important trade arteries with mainland Europe.

Johnson spoke to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron by phone, saying "we both understand each other's positions and want to resolve these problems as fast as as possible."

Germany stopped air links with the UK from midnight on Sunday, with the ban slated to last until December 31. Cargo flights will be exempt, but a government source said Berlin is already "working on measures" to extend the suspension into January.

Ireland also suspended almost all travel for 48 hours on Sunday evening, while Switzerland closed its borders on Monday, imposing a 10-day quarantine on those who arrived since December 14.

All three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – have halted all passenger flights from the UK. Lithuania will still allow flights to depart for the UK, while Estonia and Latvia have halted those as well. Latvia has also banned bus and ferry passenger traffic to and from the UK. The bans came into effect on Monday and will last until the end of the year. 

Norway has halted all flights to and from the UK with immediate effect for a minimum of 48 hours, the country's health minister Bent Høie said in a statement. Sweden has also followed suite with a 48 hour ban on Monday.

Bulgaria said flights to and from Britain would be suspended from midnight Sunday until January 31. The government had earlier announced a 10-day quarantine for anyone arriving from the UK.

Romania has banned all flights to and from the UK for two weeks, beginning on Monday afternoon, alongside Czechia.

Balkan countries including Croatia, Macedonia and Albania are all suspending flights until January 31.

Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that flights from Britain, Denmark – where nine cases of the new strain have been detected – the Netherlands and South Africa would be suspended.

Iran's health ministry has ordered flights from Britain suspended for two weeks, state news agency IRNA reported. 

Israel said it was barring entry to foreign citizens traveling from Britain, Denmark and South Africa. A joint statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office and the health ministry also announced strict rules for Israelis returning home from those nations, saying they would be confined in army-run hotels serving as quarantine centers.

Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it was halting all flights and suspending entry through its land and seaports for at least a week, with the option to extend for a further week. Starting December 8, Passengers who arrived in Saudi Arabia from Europe, or any country where the new strain was detected, will be required to self-isolate for two weeks and undergo testing.

Kuwait has added the UK to a list of "high-risk" nations and banned flights.

El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said on Twitter that anyone who had been in the UK or South Africa in the past 30 days will not be allowed to enter the country.

Peru has gone further, banning all flights from Europe and the entry of any foreigner who had been in Britain in the past fortnight, while Argentina and Chile have limited their bans to the UK.

New strain "out of control"

The UK's Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said the mutant variant "is out of control" and that he is "really worried" about how the country's healthcare service will cope with an influx of infections. 

The WHO confirmed it was "in close contact with UK officials" and would update governments and the public as more is learnt. However, emergencies chief Michael Ryan said on Monday the new variant "is not yet out of control." But added: "In some senses, it means we have to work harder. Even if the virus has become a little bit more efficient in spreading, the virus can be stopped."

A WHO official confirmed the variant was first identified in the South East of England in September and has been circulating in the area since. 

Studies are under way to better understand how fast it spreads and whether "it's related to the variant itself, or a combination of factors with behavior," Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, said. 

Johnson said on Saturday the new strain "could increase the R [rate of infection] by 0.4 or more and is up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original disease," warning it was "spreading very fast."

However, the UK prime minister stressed there was no evidence to suggest it is more lethal, causes more severe illness, or that vaccines will be less effective against it.

Israel on Sunday banned travelers from South Africa, Denmark and the U.K. from entering its borders following the emergence of a new variant of the novel coronavirus in those countries.

Israel's cabinet unanimously approved the restriction which also requires Israeli nationals returning from the affected countries to quarantine in designated hotels upon their return.

Citizens returning from other countries are allowed to self-isolate at home.

By Sunday, Israel had reported 373,655 COVID-19 infections with 3,082 deaths, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University.

The ban imposed on travelers from South Africa, Denmark and the U.K. comes a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a COVID-19 vaccine jab to begin a rollout of the country's mass vaccination drive.

Other top government officials have also taken the jabs.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Sunday that the government has imposed a strict Christmas lockdown in London and southeast England because a new strain of the coronavirus was "out of control." 

Hancock warned that new restrictions may have to remain in place for several months until the virus vaccine is fully rolled out.

A number of European countries have or are considering suspension of flight and train arrivals from the UK to prevent the spread of the virus.

The Dutch government has banned all passenger flights from the UK from 0500 GMT on Sunday until January 1.

Belgium will also suspend flights and train arrivals from the UK from midnight (2300 GMT) on Sunday, said Prime Minister Alexander de Croo.

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio indicated in a Facebook post that Italy is planning to suspend flights to and from Britain. 

"As the government, our duty is to protect Italians and for this reason... we will sign, with the health minister, a decree suspending flights to and from Britain," he said, without saying when the measure would come into effect. 

On the same day, France and Germany are also reportedly planning similar action.

The new variant has spread fast in London and southeast England, according to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday. 

Read more: New COVID-19 strain prompts UK government to tighten restrictions

The new strain "could increase the R [rate of infection] by 0.4 or more and is up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original disease," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, warning that it was "spreading very fast."

The country's capital London as well as parts of southeastern England are entering a new Tier 4 level curb, which is similar to the country's national lockdown in March.

According to BBC, under the Tier 4 restrictions, residents are being asked to stay at home; non-essential shops will have to close, along with hairdressers, nail bars, and indoor entertainment venues. People in the Tier 4 areas should not travel abroad, except in limited circumstances. 

(Cover: Only a handful of people walking on Regent Street in London, UK, on December 19, 2020. /VCG)

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Sunday announced the suspension of flight and train arrivals from Britain from midnight (2300 GMT) Sunday.

This comes after the UK detected a coronavirus variant suspected to be more infectious.

The suspension will be in place for at least 24 hours. 

Authorities in Guangzhou City, south China's Guangdong Province, reported one new asymptomatic COVID-19 case on Sunday. The patient was a staff member at the hotel used to quarantine entrants from overseas.

The authorities immediately organized nucleic acid testing and screening for key populations in the relevant regions.

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has reported 74 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 70 locally-transmitted infections, the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said on Sunday. 

The origin of 25 cases remains unknown, the CHP said.

Thailand confirmed 576 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, the country's highest daily tally, including 516 migrant workers in Samut Sakhon, according to a health ministry statement.

The 516 new cases in the southwestern province of Samut Sakhon were linked to a shrimp market, the statement read.

Provincial Governor Verasak Vichitsangsri announced lockdown measures in Samut Sakhon, including the curfew between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. from Saturday until January 3.

Schools, stadiums and boxing arenas have been ordered temporarily closed while convenience stores will be closed during the curfew period, according to the provincial governor.

A travel ban has been imposed to keep residents of Samut Sakhon from leaving the province during the lockdown while no migrant workers or other foreigners are allowed to enter, which includes a large number of Myanmar migrant workers mostly employed in the fishing industry.

The United States reported over 400,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day on Friday, setting a gloomy new world record as the country prepares for the distribution of a second COVID-19 vaccine.

A total of 403,359 new cases and 2,756 deaths were reported across the country, according to data updated Saturday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The new data brought the seven-day average daily case increase to a record-high of 238,923 cases, and the seven-day average daily death increase to over 2,500.

There are a record 114,751 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19, according to latest data of The COVID Tracking Project.

The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a key COVID-19 model, projects the national daily death toll to continue increasing to a peak of over 3,750 in mid-January.

The United States has recorded nearly 17.6 million cases with over 315,300 related deaths as of Saturday afternoon, according to the real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

Australia's New South Wales (NSW) recorded 30 new coronavirus cases overnight on Sunday, the state's Premier Gladys Berejiklian said, as an outbreak in Sydney's northern beaches suburbs continues to grow.

Of the new cases, 28 were directly linked to the suburban cluster while the other two were being investigated, Berejiklian said.

Fresh COVID-19 curbs are being introduced in the greater Sydney starting midnight till next Wednesday, including stricter social distancing rules indoors and new limit on the maximum number of people allowed in a gathering – maximum 10 people for family gatherings and less than 300 for venues like church and cafes. 

Since Saturday afternoon, people in Sydney's northern beaches areas have been ordered to stay at home except for going out for work and other essential needs. People outside are temporarily not allowed into the area.

Meanwhile, some Australian states are initiating border restrictions for NSW travelers, with Victoria barring entry of travelers from the greater Sydney and introducing a permit system for entry from the rest of NSW. Quarantine is being ordered in states including Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia for travelers from either the northern beaches or Sydney. 

(With input from Reuters)

Northeast China's Liaoning Province reported one domestically transmitted case of COVID-19 on Saturday, local health authorities said on Sunday.

The case, reported in the port city of Dalian, was a close contact of an asymptomatic carrier diagnosed earlier, according to the provincial health commission.

The individual was diagnosed with COVID-19 during quarantine and has been transferred to a designated local hospital, the authorities said.

A total of 813,504 people have received nucleic acid testing in the city, with all results negative.

All of the medical institutions in Dalian have entered "wartime" mode for epidemic prevention and control. 

By Saturday, Liaoning had reported a total of 291 COVID-19 cases, including 65 cases from overseas.

The Dutch government on Sunday banned all passenger flights from the UK after finding a case in the Netherlands of a new coronavirus strain that has been circulating in the UK.

The ban, which starts at 6 a.m. (0500 GMT) on Sunday and lasts until January 1, came hours after the UK announced a stay at home order for part of the country to slow the more infectious variant.

"An infectious mutation of the COVID-19 virus is circulating in the United Kingdom. It is said to spread more easily and faster and is more difficult to detect," the Dutch health ministry said in a statement. 

The Dutch public health body, the RIVM, therefore "recommends that any introduction of this virus strain from the United Kingdom be limited as much as possible by limiting and/or controlling passenger movements." 

Prime Minister Mark Rutte's cabinet had taken the "precautionary decision" to ban flights from the UK, the statement said, adding that other forms of transport were still under review.

The Netherlands is under a five-week lockdown until mid-January with schools and all non-essential shops closed to slow a surge in the virus. 

The health ministry added that a "case study in the Netherlands at the beginning of December revealed a virus with the variant described in the United Kingdom."

Experts were looking at how the infection happened and whether there were related cases.

South Korea reported 1,097 new coronavirus cases, a new daily record for the country, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Sunday.

This brings the total infections to 49,665, with 674 deaths. The daily number was above 1,000 for a fifth consecutive day, as some medical experts say the government needs to introduce tighter social distancing rules.

The last record was set on Wednesday when the country reported 1,076 confirmed cases.

The Chinese mainland on Saturday recorded 23 new COVID-19 cases, one locally-transmitted and 22 from overseas, the National Health Commission announced on Sunday. 

The single local infection was reported in Dalian City of northeast China's Liaoning Province. The male patient, a chef and restaurant owner, was a close contact of one asymptomatic person in the city; he tested positive during group quarantine. 

Ten new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 205 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.  

No COVID-19 deaths were registered on Saturday. Meanwhile, 21 patients were discharged from hospitals. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 86,829, with 4,634 deaths.

The total confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:  

Hong Kong: 8,078 (6,737 recoveries, 129 deaths)

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries)  

Taiwan: 763 (625 recoveries, 7 deaths)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday received his COVID-19 vaccine jab in public to start the rollout of the country's vaccination exercise.

Netanyahu's vaccination was broadcasted on local media stations, with the prime minister taking the opportunity to urge citizens to get vaccinated against the virus.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein was also expected to receive the vaccination.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and other top government are also lined up to receive the vaccination from Sunday.

(COVER IMAGE: File photo of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivering a statement to his Likud party in Jerusalem, December 2, 2020. /AP)

The UK government has introduced tough new measures for some areas of England in response to the fast spread of a new strain of the COVID-19 virus. 

As of Sunday morning, the country's capital London as well as parts of southeastern England will enter a new Tier 4, with restrictions likened to the first nationwide lockdown earlier this year. 

The new strain "could increase the R [rate of infection] by 0.4 or more and is up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original disease," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, who warned that it was "spreading very fast."

The UK's chief scientific officer Patrick Vallance said the new strain first occurred in mid-September in London or Kent. He said scientists had detected 23 changes in the new variant, mainly in the way it binds to human cells – at "an unusually large number" – and was responsible for "a significant and substantial" increase in the number of cases in areas where it was circulating.

It now accounts for 62 percent of those who have tested positive for the virus in London, while the number is above 45 percent in other regions put under new restrictions. 

"There is no evidence at the moment to suggest the new variant causes more severe disease," Vallance added. 

"Nothing has been seen so far to suggest it alters the immune response and the vaccine response should be adequate for this virus," he added.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he had "a very heavy heart" when announcing a reversal of his existing plans to relax rules on household mixing over Christmas.

In the new Tier 4 areas, residents must stay at home, non-essential shops are to close, and people are being urged to work from home if they can, with travel to and from Tier 4 areas banned, meaning many Christmas plans are left in tatters. 

In all other tiers, three households will only be allowed to mix on December 25 and not the five days the government had previously announced. 

The number of COVID-19 infections in Kenya has risen to 94,151 after the ministry of health announced 390 new cases on Saturday from tests conducted over the past 24 hours.

From the confirmed cases, 363 were Kenyans while the remaining 27 were foreigners.

In the same period, four patients lost their lives to the disease, bringing Kenya's total number of fatalities to 1,633.

Kenya is one of only eight countries in Africa that have reported more than 90,000 COVID-19 cases.

The country's caseload is only shadowed by tallies registered by South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia, Tunisia and Algeria.

Kenya expects to receive its first batch of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine in January, with the government saying groups at high risk of contracting the virus will be prioritized.

The ministry of health also announced 43 new recoveries, bringing its total number of recoveries to 75,559.

The condition of French President Emmanuel Macron is "stable" after infection of COVID-19, the French presidency said on Saturday.

"The medical condition of the president is stable compared with ... Friday. He presents similar COVID-19 symptoms which do not prevent him from fulfilling his obligations," the presidency said.

Macron tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday. He later said he was working at a slower pace than usual outside Paris.

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) reported 109 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 102 locally-transmitted infections, the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said on Saturday. 

The origin of 42 cases remains unknown, the CHP said.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed the 10-million mark in India on Saturday, the country's official data showed. It's the world's second-highest caseload behind the United States.

China will start vaccinating high-risk groups against COVID-19 over the winter, Zeng Yixin, deputy head of the National Health Commission said Saturday. 

Those who work in the cold-chain industry, healthcare, customs, wholesale and seafood markets, and public transportation, are among the groups to receive the vaccines first, health officials said at a press briefing in Beijing.

He said that as the temperature falls in winter and spring, China faces greater pressure and challenges in preventing the spread of the virus. Under such circumstances, vaccinating key population groups is of great significance to prevention efforts.

This is the first step in the country's COVID-19 vaccination plan, he said. After the COVID-19 vaccines are approved to enter the market, especially when production capacity increases, vaccination programs for senior citizens, people with underlying diseases, and the general public will be carried out in an orderly manner. 

Emergency use of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines shows no severe adverse effects 

In July, China approved the emergency use of three Chinese COVID-19 vaccines on specific high-infection risk groups, such as medical workers, border inspectors, and those who had to travel abroad. Two candidate vaccines from Sinopharm and another from Sinovac Biotech are part of the emergency program.

Since then, over 1 million doses have been administered to high-risk groups, with no serious adverse effects reported so far, said Zheng Zhongwei, the NHC official heading China's COVID-19 vaccine development team, during the press briefing.

Among those who were vaccinated, more than 60,000 have traveled to high-risk areas abroad, and no serious infection was reported, he added.

Phase-III trials of the three vaccine candidates have been conducted in other countries, during which a total of 75,000 participants have taken the shots and reported no severe side effects, he said.

He noted that based on these facts, China decided to start the two-step inoculation plan over the winter. 

Beijing on Friday recorded two new locally confirmed COVID-19 cases related to one confirmed case from overseas that was previously reported, the local health commission announced on Saturday.

The latest confirmed cases emerged after Beijing recorded no new local infections for around five months.

The new cases, two women aged 46 and 48, were close contacts of an imported COVID-19 case reported on Monday.

Places of work and residence of the confirmed cases have been disinfected, said authorities.

On Friday afternoon, at a meeting on pandemic prevention and control, the city's Party chief Cai Qi called for resolutely blocking channels of disease transmission to ensure the health of residents.

Read more:

Chinese mainland reports 17 new COVID-19 cases

The Chinese mainland on Friday recorded 17 new COVID-19 cases, three locally-transmitted and 14 from overseas, the National Health Commission announced on Saturday. 

Of the three local infections, two were reported in Beijing and one in northeastern Liaoning Province, health officials said.

Sixteen new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were also recorded, while 203 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.  

No COVID-19 deaths were reported on Friday. Meanwhile, 14 patients were discharged from hospitals. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 86,806, with 4,634 deaths.

The total confirmed infections in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Taiwan region are as follows:  

Hong Kong: 7,969 (6,628 recoveries, 129 deaths)  

Macao: 46 (46 recoveries)  

Taiwan: 759 (619 recoveries, 7 deaths)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday approved Moderna Inc's coronavirus vaccine on an emergency basis.

The U.S. Congress on Friday passed and sent to U.S. President Donald Trump a two-day stopgap extension of existing federal funds to avoid a midnight government shutdown, as negotiators work on a $900 billion coronavirus aid bill and a $1.4 trillion government-wide spending bill through September 2021.

Another 226,529 people in the United States have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to over 17.3 million, according to latest figures released by the Johns Hopkins University on Friday.

The coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S. rose by 2,775 to 312,722, the data showed.

The World Health Organization (WHO ) and partners said Friday that the COVAX facility, created to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, expected to begin delivering jabs early next year. 

Announcing the agency had secured nearly two billion doses of several promising vaccine candidates, COVAX said in a statement that this would "enable all participating economies to have access to doses in the first half of 2021, with first deliveries anticipated to begin in the first quarter of 2021." 

The Facility currently has 190 participating economies, including 92 low- and middle-income economies.

It said the first rollout next year will be delivered to all participating economies who have requested doses in this timeframe.

"All deliveries are contingent upon several factors, such as regulatory approvals and country readiness," according to the statement.

"The arrival of vaccines is giving all of us a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "But we will only truly end the pandemic if we end it everywhere at the same time, which means it's essential to vaccinate some people in all countries, rather than all people in some countries."

(With input from AFP)

Britain's reproduction "R" number has jumped above 1 and the COVID-19 epidemic is estimated to be growing again, the Government Office for Science said on Friday, a sharp reversal from the shrinkage seen during England's national lockdown.

The R number is between 1.1 and 1.2 meaning that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between 11 and 12 other people. It rose from an estimated 0.9-1.0 last week.

The daily growth rate is now between +1 percent and +4 percent, sharply higher compared to an estimated 0 percent to -2 percent figure reported last week that implied the epidemic had been shrinking.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen publicly received the COVID-19 vaccine at the White House on Friday, in an attempt to shore up public support for vaccinations as U.S. cases of COVID-19 soared over 17 million.

Live on television, the couple was vaccinated and joined by Surgeon General Jerome Adams. 

"Building confidence in the vaccine is what brings us here this morning," said Pence after taking the shot. "I didn't feel a thing. Well done."

They were injected with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized for emergency use a week ago.

Top infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield were in the audience. 

"We want virtually everyone eligible to get this vaccine ultimately," Dr. Fauci said in a brief remark after the public vaccination. 

The FDA was expected to approve a second vaccine for emergency use, this one from Moderna Inc., on Friday.

But U.S. President Donald Trump, who was absent from Pence's injection, jumped ahead of the agency, tweeting earlier on the day that Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine had been approved.

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will receive a public vaccination next week. 

(With input from agencies)

The U.S. approved the use of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, with distribution to start immediately, U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday on Twitter.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet authorized emergency use of the vaccine.

An advisory panel voted Thursday to recommend the FDA authorize Moderna's vaccine for emergency use. 

Beijing reported one new COVID-19 infection related to confirmed case from overseas that reported before, who was close contact of the imported case, local health authorities said on Friday.

A total of 109 environmental samples have been collected from the hotel, staff dormitory and workplace that the imported case has lived, among which 21 samples from the dormitory area were positive.

The new infection has been transferred to the hospital for medical quarantine and treatment.

Authorities in Dalian City of northeast China's Liaoning Province completed genome sequencing on asymptomatic infections and food packaging specimens, and the results showed that the transmission source was from abroad.

The city has reported a total of six asymptomatic cases from December 15 to 17, all of whom are in stable condition.

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Friday reported 70 new COVID-19 cases, including 64 cases of local transmission, according to the Centre for Health Protection (CHP).

Among the new infections, 25 have unknown origins, the CHP said.

Global cases of COVID-19 have exceeded the 75 million mark, reaching 75,019,857, according to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said on Thursday that it will release a new round of anti-pandemic funds worth 6.4 billion Hong Kong dollars (about $825.53 million) to help hard-hit industries, including fitness centers and restaurants.

Matthew Cheung, chief secretary for administration of the HKSAR government, briefed media that 5.5 billion Hong Kong dollars have been earmarked to help industries hard-hit by COVID-19. The remaining sum will be utilized for emergency use.

Meanwhile, the HKSAR on Thursday reported 96 new COVID-19 cases, including 90 cases of local transmission, according to the Centre for Health Protection (CHP). Among the new infections, 26 have an unknown origin, the CHP said.