Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said Sunday that the country is “really at a critical time” in confronting the coronavirus pandemic, as the number of new cases is soaring even as the first 1.9 million Americans have been vaccinated.  Fauci, who was vaccinated last week, told CNN on Sunday that it is “very tough” for people to not socialize over the holidays even though health experts have strongly advised against it.  Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, prepares to receive his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Md., Dec. 22, 2020.Authorities say 85 million Americans are traveling to visit relatives and friends, which they fear will lead to even more infections in the United States. For several weeks now, the U.S. has been recording 200,000 new cases a day.  Fauci said people are “crowded in airports, a mixing of households. As much as we advise against it, it happens.”  Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 and named as the chief medical adviser to the incoming Biden administration, unequivocally urged Americans to get inoculated.  Fauci said he hopes that 75% to 80% of the 209 million adult Americans will be vaccinated in the coming months, a figure that might be sufficient for herd immunity to take hold in the country to end the pandemic.  FILE – Staff members receive the COVID-19 vaccine at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, N.J., Dec. 17, 2020.He said that with inoculations over the next several months, the U.S. could “reach a critical number of vaccinated” people by the “middle to the end of summer” next August.  That would by then, he said, allow the country to “return to some form of normality.”  The U.S. has started inoculating primary health care workers and elderly residents of nursing homes, with front-line essential workers and those 75 and older set to be next in line for the shots in the next few weeks.  U.S. health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defined front-line essential workers as emergency responders, teachers and other education workers, including day care personnel, food and agriculture workers, correctional facility staff members, postal workers, public transit workers, and people who work in manufacturing and in grocery stores.  Fauci said U.S. health authorities are monitoring mutant strains that have shown up in Britain and South Africa. Officials in those two countries say that the vaccines developed by drug makers Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna will protect against the new strains, but Fauci said that U.S. researchers will be doing their own tests to make sure.  The U.S. has recorded more than 332,000 deaths from the coronavirus and nearly 19 million infections, with both figures more than in any other country, according to the Johns Hopkins University.  
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The World Health Organization is urging nations to prepare for inevitable future pandemics, as it marks the first International Day of Epidemic Preparedness.“If we fail to prepare, we are preparing to fail. … Last year, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board published its first report, which concluded, the world remains dangerously unprepared for a global pandemic,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.In a video statement to launch the International Day of Epidemic Preparedness, Tedros warns nations against lurching from one outbreak to another while doing nothing to prepare and prevent this from happening.  He calls this dangerously shortsighted.A year after being detected in Wuhan, China, the coronavirus has spread widely. The impact on the world’s health and economic well-being has been devastating.Latest World Health Organization figures put the number of global infections at more than 80 million cases, including over 1.7 million deaths.Despite these grim statistics, the development of efficacious and safe vaccines is raising hopes the COVID-19 pandemic will be relegated to the history books in the coming months.  While Tedros shares these hopes, he advises people to temper their optimism.“History tells us that this will not be the last pandemic and epidemics are a fact of life …All countries must invest in preparedness capacities to prevent, detect and mitigate emergencies of all kinds—whether they be natural occurring epidemics or deliberate events,” he said.The WHO chief said the only way to defeat the current outbreak and prepare for the next is for all countries to work together in a spirit of solidarity.  This, he adds, means involving and respecting the needs of all nations — rich and poor alike. 
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European Union gave approval on Dec. 21 for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, the latest regulatory go-ahead for the shot, while the United States authorised Moderna Inc’s vaccine on Dec. 19, the second for the country and the first for the company worldwide. The following is what we know about the race to deliver vaccines to help end the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 1.7 million people worldwide: Who is furthers along?  U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and German partner BioNTech are the COVID-19 vaccine trailblazers. On Nov. 18, they became the first in the world to release full late-stage trial data. Britain was the first to approve the shot for emergency use on Dec. 3, followed by Canada on Dec. 9 and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Dec. 11. Several other countries including Saudi Arabia and Mexico have also approved it. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the shot on Dec. 21 and India is accelerating its review. The World Health Organization could decide whether to give its emergency use approval for the Pfizer candidate by the end of the year as part of its COVAX programme aimed at providing shots for poor — and middle-income countries. Who will approve Moderna next? Moderna became a close second to Pfizer in many countries after it released a full data analysis for a late-stage trial on Nov. 30 showing a 94.1% efficacy rate for its vaccine. Canada approved the shot on Dec. 23 and the EMA will do so on Jan. 6. Who else is in the running?  Britain’s AstraZeneca is seeking approval for its vaccine in Britain after announcing interim late-stage trial data on Nov. 23. It had an average efficacy rate of 70% and as much as 90% for a subgroup of trial participants who got a half dose first, followed by a full dose. However, it is not clear how the regulator will deal with the different dosages in the efficacy data in its assessment. While India is conducting an accelerated review, it has asked for more data. AstraZeneca is also in discussions with the EMA, which is conducting a rolling review of the vaccine. India is expected to make a decision on whether to approve for the two full-dose regimen of the shot, which was shown to tbe 62% effective in late-stage trials, soon. Its review does not include the more effective dosage, with 90% efficacy which was given to a small subgroup of volunteers in the trials. U.S. drugmaker Johnson & Johnson plans to deliver trial data in January 2021, teeing it up for U.S. authorization in February if its shot is effective. It reduced the enrolment target for its clinical trial to 40,000 volunteers from 60,000 on Dec. 9, potentially speeding results which are tied to how quickly participants become infected. U.S. firm Novavax is running a late-stage trial in Britain with data due in the first quarter of 2021. It expects to start a large-scale trial in the United States this month. France’s Sanofi and Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline , however, announced a setback on Dec. 11 in their attempts to develop a vaccine. The drugmakers said it showed an insufficient immune response in older people in mid-stage trials and that they would start a new study in February. What happens in the trials?  The companies typically test their vaccines against a placebo – typically saline solution – in healthy volunteers to see if the rate of COVID-19 infection among those who got the vaccine is significantly lower than in those who received the dummy shot. How are volunteers infected? The trials rely on subjects becoming naturally infected with COVID-19, so how long it takes to generate results largely depends on how pervasive the virus is where trials are being conducted. Each drugmaker has targeted a specific number of infections to trigger a first analysis of their data. How well are the vaccines supposed to work? The World Health Organization ideally wants to see at least 70% efficacy. The FDA wants at least 50% – which means there must be at least twice as many infections among volunteers who received a placebo as among those in the vaccine group. The EMA has said it may accept a lower efficacy level. What about Russia and China? While Pfizer’s shot was the first to be rolled out following the publication of full Phase III trial data, Russia and China have been inoculating their citizens for months with several different vaccines still undergoing late-stage trials. Russia said on Nov. 24 its Sputnik V vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya Institute, was 91.4% effective based on interim late-stage trial results. It started vaccinations in August and has inoculated more than 100,000 people so far. India plans to make 300 million of the shots next year and Argentina has given the greenlight for emergency use of the shot, with some 300,000 doses arriving in the country on Dec. 24. China launched an emergency use programme in July aimed at essential workers and others at high risk of infection. It has vaccinated about one million people as of mid-November using at least three shots – two developed by the state-backed China National Biotec Group (CNBG) and one by Sinovac Biotech. Trial data on a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech has varied: interim data from a late-stage trial in Turkey showed its CoronaVac shot is 91.25% effective, while researchers in Brazil say the shot was more than 50% effective. The United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, said on Dec. 9 that one of the CNBG vaccines was 86% effective based on interim results from a late-stage trial in the Gulf Arab state.  
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Several European Union countries began vaccinating against COVID-19 Sunday.In Italy, a nurse, a university professor and a doctor were the first people to receive the initial vaccine dose at Rome’s Lazzaro Spallanzani hospital.In Spain, the vaccination began at Los Olmos nursing home in Guadalajara.In the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Andrej Babis was among the first people inoculated, as vaccinations began nationwide.In Germany Saturday, 101-year-old Edith Kwoizalla, who lives in a retirement home, received the first of her two shots.In Hungary, it was a doctor, Arienne Kertesz from South Pest.In Slovakia, an infectious disease specialist was the first in line.The first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were limited to 10,000 doses in most EU countries. Each nation decides its own vaccination program, but all are vaccinating the most vulnerable first.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called it “a touching moment of unity” in a video celebrating the beginning of the rollout of the vaccine to nearly 450 million people.The vaccination in EU countries began as a new coronavirus variant, more contagious and more dangerous, spread internationally, adding emphasis to the World Health Organization’s warning that the current pandemic will not be the last.The warning came in a video message on Sunday by WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.The world must learn from COVID-19 and address “the intimate links between the health of humans, animals and the planet,” Tedros said in his remarks for the first International Day of Epidemic Preparedness.“For too long the world has operated on a cycle of panic and neglect,” he said. “We throw money at one epidemic and when it’s over, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next one.”Tedros said every country needs to invest in what he called the supply of care: the ability to avoid, detect and mitigate all kinds of emergencies.The new virus strain is 50% to 74% more contagious than its predecessors, according to a study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, raising fears of more hospitalizations and deaths in 2021 than in 2020.Effective Monday, U.S. authorities said passengers arriving from Britain must test negative for COVID-19 before departure. 
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Italians began to receive COVID-19 vaccines Sunday after the first batch of nearly 10,000 doses arrived. Italians hope that the massive vaccination campaign will soon bring an end to lockdowns and return them to their normal lives.A 29-year-old nurse was the first to receive the vaccine at Rome’s Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases. Health workers at hospitals across the country were next.The government’s plan is for health staff and workers and elderly residents in nursing homes to be the first in line. Those over 80 will follow, then 60- to 70-year-olds, and those who suffer from chronic illnesses.Next will be the general population, starting with school staff, police forces and prison workers. With more than 50% of Italians now saying that they will get inoculated, and that number on the rise, the hope is that in nine months, Italy will reach herd immunity with 70% of the population vaccinated, a total of 42 million people.The country’s first allocated 9,750 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine arrived at the Salvo D’Acquisto military base late on Christmas night.  A van with the first batch of vaccines was escorted by police cars to the Spallanzani hospital in Rome.Italian soldiers loaded other boxes of the vaccine onto military cargo planes for distribution all over the country. Five planes took off from the military base of Pratica di Mare, near Rome.Domenico Arcuri, Italy’s special commissioner for the COVID-19 emergency, said that with the arrival of the first batch of the vaccine, Sunday would be a symbolic and emotional day.Arcuri said the first doses arrived after a long night. He said Italians are seeing the first ray of light, but the road is still a long one before day arrives. It is important, he added, for this symbolic vaccination to begin and this campaign will continue over the next months to lead the country out of this emergency.Italy is planning to set up pavilions in its artistic squares to dispense vaccines. The primrose-shaped pavilions were designed by architect Stefano Boeri who said his team had picked the flower, which heralds the arrival of spring, as the symbol of the campaign, whose slogan is “Italy is reborn with a flower.”There will be around 300 distribution sites in Italy, rising to 1,500 once the vaccination campaign is at its peak.Boeri, famous for designing Milan’s Vertical Forest skyscraper, said the pavilions would be powered with solar energy and built with recyclable materials such as timber and fabric. He did not charge for his work.More than 71,000 people have died in Italy since the start of the outbreak in February.
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The Department of Agriculture for the U.S. state of Oregon said among animals captured during wildlife surveillance near a mink farm that recently had a coronavirus outbreak, a mink believed to have recently escaped confinement tested positive for low levels of the virus known to cause COVID-19 in humans.  State officials released a statement saying recent tests confirm mink at the farm that tested positive for the virus in late November are now clear of the virus.   KOIN reports the department conducted two rounds of follow-up tests, 14 days apart, to document the animals’ recovery.   The first follow-up testing occurred Dec. 7 with only one of the 62 tested animals testing positive for barely detectable levels of the virus. With the second round of testing on Dec. 21, there were no signs of the virus among all 62 tested, indicating the mink population on the farm had recovered, ODA said.   One more round of testing will be conducted prior to releasing the quarantine, per federal guidelines.  Scientists with USDA Wildlife Services, under the direction of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife are continuing to conduct wildlife surveillance near the farm, which entails trapping and testing animals.   On Tuesday, The USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratory confirmed the trapped mink, which was captured on Dec. 13, tested positive for low levels of SARS-CoV-2.   Authorities believe the captured mink had very recently escaped confinement based on the condition of the animal, necropsy findings and the location of capture. As a precaution, ODA is requesting continued surveillance, trapping and testing.  “There is no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is circulating or has been established in the wild,” said Dr. Ryan Scholz, ODA state veterinarian.   The Arizona-based conservation group, Center for Biological Diversity, said the apparent escape of the mink was potentially dangerous. “It’s beyond outrageous that an infected mink can escape even from a quarantined fur farm, putting an untold range of wild animals at risk of contracting the virus,” said Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at the CBD.   U.S. authorities say the risk of the virus jumping from mink to humans is low and almost negligible when properly managed.    
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The pandemic caused by the coronavirus “will not be the last pandemic, and epidemics are a fact of life,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a video message Sunday.The world must learn from COVID-19 and address “the intimate links between the health of humans, animals and the planet,” Tedros said in his remarks for the first International Day of Epidemic Preparedness.“For too long the world has operated on a cycle of panic and neglect,” he said. “We throw money at one epidemic and when it’s over, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next one.”Tedros said every country needs to invest in what he called the supply of care: the ability to avoid, detect and mitigate all kinds of emergencies.The WHO chief’s warning came as the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against the coronavirus arrived in European Union countries, with the first shots going into arms Saturday.In Germany, 101-year-old Edith Kwoizalla, who lives in a retirement home, received the first of her two shots. In Hungary, it was a doctor, Arienne Kertesz from South Pest. In Slovakia, an infectious disease specialist was the first in line.The first shipments were limited to 10,000 doses in most EU countries. Each decides its own vaccination program, but all are vaccinating the most vulnerable first.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called it “a touching moment of unity” in a video celebrating the beginning of the rollout of the vaccine to nearly 450 million people.“Today, we start turning the page on a difficult year. The COVID-19 vaccine has been delivered to all EU countries. Vaccination will begin tomorrow across the EU,” she said.Other countries, including Russia, which said on Saturday that it had passed 3 million cases, the United Kingdom, the United States and Mexico started vaccinating people in early December. Russia approved its main coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, for use in people older than 60, Russian media quoted the health ministry as saying.As those vaccinations were ramping up, several countries Saturday confirmed cases of the British variant of the coronavirus. Canada reported a couple from southern Ontario with no travel history, exposure or high-risk contact had tested positive for the variant. Italy, Sweden, Spain and Japan joined France, Germany, Lebanon and Denmark in reporting cases of the new strain of the coronavirus.The new strain is 50% to 74% more contagious than its predecessors, according to a study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, raising fears of more hospitalizations and deaths in 2021 than in 2020.Effective Monday, U.S. authorities said, passengers arriving from Britain must test negative for COVID-19 before departure.
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France on Saturday received its first batches of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, which were delivered to the Paris hospital pharmacy network.Inoculations are planned to begin in two nursing homes Sunday, the same day the rest of Europe is set to begin vaccinations.France has reported more than 2.6 million COVID-19 infections and over 62,500 deaths. French health officials said they recorded the first case of the new COVID-19 variant that has led to new lockdowns in Britain and global travel restrictions on British residents.The first batch of Pfizer-BioΝTech vaccines also arrived in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, on Saturday and is being stored at a military-run facility. The country, like the rest of Europe, will begin injections on Sunday in nine hospitals across the country.On Saturday, Russia approved its main coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, for use in people over 60 years old, Russian media quoted the health ministry as saying.According to Russian official data, the country crossed the 3 million mark of infections on Saturday, with over 29,200 new cases and 560 death in the previous 24 hours.COVID-19 infections in Japan’s capital, Tokyo, recorded a new daily high on Saturday.Japan, like France and some other countries, has also reported cases of the new coronavirus variant. Japan’s health ministry said five people who arrived between Dec. 18 and Dec. 21 tested positive for coronavirus and were sent to quarantine straight from the airports. Officials said further analysis showed they had contracted the new variant of the coronavirus.British authorities have said the new coronavirus variant appears more contagious and may have led to a spike in COVID-19 cases, leading countries around the world to restrict travel from Britain.U.S. authorities announced Thursday that passengers arriving from Britain must test negative for COVID-19 before departure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the new requirement is effective beginning Monday.In another development Friday, Pope Francis said in his Christmas message that COVID-19 vaccines must be available to all and called on political and business leaders to “promote cooperation, not competition” in the distribution of them.In Israel, the government announced it would impose its third nationwide lockdown beginning Sunday to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The new restrictions will last for two weeks.Health officials in China’s northeastern port city of Dalian are testing millions of residents after seven new coronavirus cases were reported there in the previous 24 hours. Authorities there have ordered anyone except essential workers to stay home.South Korea, Japan and Indonesia recorded their highest daily increases in coronavirus cases Friday as a third wave of COVID-19 hit the countries.
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French health officials say the country has recorded its first case of the new COVID-19 variant that has led to new lockdowns in Britain and global travel restrictions on British residents.The French health ministry said a Frenchman who had been living in England and returned to France tested positive for the new variant in the central French city of Tours. It said the man had no symptoms and was isolating in his home.Some other countries have also reported cases of the new variant, including Japan, which announced its first cases Friday. Japan’s health ministry said five people who arrived between Dec. 18 and Dec. 21 tested positive for coronavirus and were sent to quarantine straight from the airports. Officials said further analysis showed they had contracted the new variant of the coronavirus.British authorities have said the new coronavirus variant appears more contagious and may have led to a spike in COVID-19 cases, leading countries around the world to restrict travel from Britain.France banned all passengers and cargo from Britain for two days, leading to major traffic problems around the British port of Dover. British transport minister Grant Shapps said more than 4,500 trucks crossed the Channel on Friday after more troops were deployed to speed up coronavirus testing.Russia announced Friday that travelers from Britain must quarantine for two weeks after entering the country. Russia had previously suspended direct flights from Britain.U.S. authorities announced on Thursday that passengers arriving from Britain must test negative for COVID-19 before departure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the new requirement is effective beginning Monday.In another development Friday, Pope Francis said in his Christmas message that COVID-19 vaccines must be available to all and called on political and business leaders to “promote cooperation, not competition” in the distribution of them.A mother and child look at the line of trucks parked up on the M20, part of Operation Stack in Ashford, Kent, England, Dec. 25, 2020.In Israel, the government announced it would impose its third nationwide lockdown beginning Sunday to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The new restrictions will last for two weeks.Health officials in China’s northeastern port city of Dalian are testing millions of residents after seven new coronavirus cases were reported there in the past 24 hours. Authorities there have ordered anyone except essential workers to stay home.South Korea, Japan and Indonesia recorded their highest daily increases in coronavirus cases Friday as a third wave of COVID-19 hit the countries.In South Korea 70% of the more than 1,200 new cases were in the greater Seoul area, where half the country’s 52 million people live.In Japan, with 884 cases reported Friday nationwide, Tokyo had the largest number of infections.Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in deaths, with 258 fatalities and 7,259 infections, bringing the country’s total numbers to 20,847and 700,097, respectively.
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The Africa and Nigerian Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week said a new variant of the coronavirus has emerged in Nigeria. The head of Nigeria’s CDC said it is studying the new strain, which is different from new strains discovered in Britain and South Africa.The variant strain was discovered in two patient samples collected on August 3 and October 9 in Nigeria’s Osun State.New strain is being studiedThe Nigeria CDC said it is studying the new strain. Director General Chikwe Ihekweazu said at a national COVID-19 briefing that it may be too early to determine if the new strain is deadlier or weaker than its parent virus.”What we’re now going to do is collect a selection of other viruses circulating in Nigeria now, so from the more recent cases and try and compare what we have now with what we have previously in Nigeria but also what is circulating abroad,” Ihekweazu said. “This is ongoing work.”Mutant strains of the coronavirus have appeared in Britain and South Africa in recent weeks but African health officials said the Nigerian variant is different from both.Nigeria is recording an escalation in coronavirus cases. Infections have increased by 52% from November to December.New restrictionsThis week, authorities imposed new restrictions on gatherings and warned citizens to avoid traveling during the yuletide season.Ihekweazu said there is a chance the new strain is responsible for the recent surge in cases.”We’ll be carrying out over the next few weeks to see whether we can explain some of the increased transmissions happening in Nigeria and to look at whether it is related to the virus,” Ihekweazu said.Nigeria is among many African countries trying to obtain and distribute coronavirus vaccines by the early part of next year.The Africa and Nigeria Centers for Disease Control said the new coronavirus strains will not affect vaccine deployment but experts worry that a continuously mutating virus could be difficult to control.Citizens urged to stay vigilantOlobayo Kunle is a pharmaceutical research expert at the Nigerian Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development.”Vaccines are designed based on a number of assumptions,” Kunle said. “They’re built around a known range of characteristics. If these characteristics keep changing, eventually we may get to a point where it falls out of the range for which that vaccine was developed.”The NCDC and other experts are hopeful the new variant is less infectious and deadly but for now authorities urge citizens to stay vigilant, especially during the holidays.
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South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia recorded the highest daily increase in coronavirus cases Friday as a third wave of COVID-19 hit the countries.In South Korea 70% of the more than 1,200 new cases were in the greater Seoul area, where half the country’s 52 million people live.In Japan, with 884 cases reported Friday nationwide, Tokyo had the largest number of infections.Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in deaths, with 258 fatalities and 7,259 infections, bringing the country’s total numbers to 20,847 and 700,097, respectively.Mexico on Thursday became the first Latin American country to launch a COVID-19 vaccination initiative, offering hope to a nation that has lost more than 120,000 people to the pandemic.A 59-year-old head nurse at the intensive care unit at Mexico City’s Ruben Lenero hospital was the first to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, in keeping with the country’s strategy to focus first on health care workers.“This is the best gift that I could have received in 2020,” Ramirez said after being inoculated in a ceremony broadcast by national media.Chile will immediately start inoculations of health care workers after receiving the first 10,000 doses of a 10 million-dose order of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine Thursday, officials said.Also Thursday, Costa Rica was preparing to vaccinate two senior citizens in a home near San Jose, while Argentina received about 300,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.The United States is about to complete its second week of vaccinations with about 1 million inoculations, mainly among health care workers and elderly residents of nursing homes. The numbers, however, are far short of the goal set by Operation Warp Speed, the federal government’s effort to mass produce millions of doses of vaccines, to inoculate 20 million Americans by the end of the year.U.S. Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui has warned that it would take longer to administer the doses.The Trump administration has reached a deal worth $2 billion to secure an additional 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which would boost the nation’s supply to 200 million doses by mid-July.With surges throughout the U.S. leading to 327,000 COVID-19 deaths and 18.5 million coronavirus infections, according to Johns Hopkins University, the speed with which immunizations can be administered becomes increasingly important.California became the first U.S. state Thursday to record 2 million coronavirus cases.Iran said it has U.S. approval to transfer funds to pay for coronavirus vaccines, Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said Thursday.The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control gave permission for the transfer of $244 million to a Swiss bank to pay for initial imports of 16.8 million doses of vaccines from COVAX, the multiagency group set up to assure fair access to vaccines for all countries.U.S. authorities announced on Thursday that passengers arriving from Britain should test negative for COVID-19 before departure, after the discovery of a new and more contagious strain of the novel coronavirus.China on Thursday became the latest country to suspend all travel with Britain.
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South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia recorded the highest daily increase in coronavirus cases Friday as a third wave of COVID-19 hit the countries.In South Korea 70% of the more than 1,200 new cases were in the greater Seoul area, where half the country’s 52 million people live.In Japan, with 884 cases reported Friday nationwide, Tokyo had the largest number of infections.Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in deaths, with 258 fatalities and 7,259 infections, bringing the country’s total numbers to 20,847 and 700,097, respectively.Mexico on Thursday became the first Latin American country to launch a COVID-19 vaccination initiative, offering hope to a nation that has lost more than 120,000 people to the pandemic.A 59-year-old head nurse at the intensive care unit at Mexico City’s Ruben Lenero hospital was the first to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, in keeping with the country’s strategy to focus first on health care workers.“This is the best gift that I could have received in 2020,” Ramirez said after being inoculated in a ceremony broadcast by national media.Chile will immediately start inoculations of health care workers after receiving the first 10,000 doses of a 10 million-dose order of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine Thursday, officials said.Also Thursday, Costa Rica was preparing to vaccinate two senior citizens in a home near San Jose, while Argentina received about 300,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.The United States is about to complete its second week of vaccinations with about 1 million inoculations, mainly among health care workers and elderly residents of nursing homes. The numbers, however, are far short of the goal set by Operation Warp Speed, the federal government’s effort to mass produce millions of doses of vaccines, to inoculate 20 million Americans by the end of the year.U.S. Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui has warned that it would take longer to administer the doses.The Trump administration has reached a deal worth $2 billion to secure an additional 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which would boost the nation’s supply to 200 million doses by mid-July.With surges throughout the U.S. leading to 327,000 COVID-19 deaths and 18.5 million coronavirus infections, according to Johns Hopkins University, the speed with which immunizations can be administered becomes increasingly important.California became the first U.S. state Thursday to record 2 million coronavirus cases.Iran said it has U.S. approval to transfer funds to pay for coronavirus vaccines, Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said Thursday.The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control gave permission for the transfer of $244 million to a Swiss bank to pay for initial imports of 16.8 million doses of vaccines from COVAX, the multiagency group set up to assure fair access to vaccines for all countries.U.S. authorities announced on Thursday that passengers arriving from Britain should test negative for COVID-19 before departure, after the discovery of a new and more contagious strain of the novel coronavirus.China on Thursday became the latest country to suspend all travel with Britain.
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Nigerian authorities this week announced the country is officially seeing a second wave of the coronavirus after it recorded its highest daily number of COVID-19 infections Dec. 17. Authorities are imposing new restrictions on public gatherings and have warned those celebrating the Yuletide holiday to avoid parties, gatherings and Christmas caroling. But some Nigerians are finding ways to spread joy during the holiday season while still keeping a safe distance by organizing remote caroling and singing from their balconies. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.
Camera:  Emeka Gibson      Producer: Rod James
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As U.S. industries push for their workers to receive early access to COVID-19 vaccines, local health departments and pharmacies face the challenge of verifying the identity of essential workers to ensure no one cuts the line.The vaccination campaign under way is now focused on hospital staff and nursing homes, tightly controlled environments where verification is relatively simple. But beginning in January or February, Americans employed in a range of industries will be eligible for inoculation, provided they are essential front-line workers.The absence of a plan to verify vaccine candidates’ jobs and confusion over who qualifies as essential raise the risks of fraud and disorganization.Who decides which worker is essential?The criteria to qualify as an essential, front-line worker varies from state to state. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that roughly 30 million essential workers will be next in line for a shot. An additional 57 million essential workers will be vaccinated later.The lack of clear guidelines will significantly complicate the verification process as those workers seek shots.The United States has two authorized COVID-19 vaccines, one from Pfizer-BioNTech and another from Moderna. The vaccines are rolling out as hospitals reach peak capacity and deaths have exceeded 328,000.The U.S. Department of Homeland Security in March published a list of essential U.S. workers during the pandemic.The list covers nearly 70% of the U.S. labor force and has provided little clarity to health officials trying to distribute initially limited doses of vaccines.Many states over the summer began developing their own priority lists, at times deferring to the importance of local industries. States generally have broad discretion when it comes to vaccine distribution.This has resulted in a patchwork of guidelines across the country, with companies complaining that their workers are considered essential in one state, but not in another.A panel of experts that advises the CDC on Sunday recommended that people 75 and older and workers including first responders, teachers, food and agriculture, manufacturing, U.S. Postal Service, public transit and grocery store workers should have the next priority for the vaccines.Some U.S. states have signaled they will nevertheless continue with the distribution plans they originally drafted.Michael Einhorn, the president of New York medical supply distributor Dealmed, criticized health officials’ decisions to prioritize essential workers for the next phase of the vaccine, rather than distributing it along age lines.”There will be people trying to cut the line and commit fraud to get a vaccine,” said Einhorn, whose company has been involved in flu shot distribution.How will eligibility be confirmed for essential workers?It is not clear yet how health departments and pharmacies will verify the identity of a significantly larger and more diverse group of people eligible for the next round of vaccines.Pharmacy operators CVS, Walgreens and Kroger each referred to state and local guidelines when asked how they would verify essential workers.”If the jurisdiction requests support from Walgreens, Walgreens will distribute a voucher or authorization form that the individual can use to schedule an appointment for a vaccination,” a Walgreens spokesperson said in a statement.CVS said it would share more information once it got closer to the next phase of vaccine distribution in the first quarter of 2021.Kroger in a statement said it would require customers to make an online appointment and use a screening tool to manage the verification process.”In some instances, the state will identify and verify the individuals before they are referred to us for vaccination,” a Kroger spokesperson said.States have not outlined how they will verify workers’ identities.A spokesperson for North Carolina’s health department on Thursday said the state would rely on self-attestation and the “hope that people will respect that the prioritization is in place.”Companies pushing to have their workers vaccinated are exploring different options.The Consumer Brands Association, which represents food, beverage, personal care and household product companies, and the Food Industry Association, representing food retailers, said they were developing template letters for employees to verify their essential worker status.”We understand states may have different designation standards, but (we are) working to provide our members with a resource to help reduce confusion,” a spokesperson for the Food Industry Association said in a statement.
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