World COVID-19 news updates: German imposes stricter lockdown, France imposes curfew in New Year's Eve

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First batch of COVID-19 vaccine ships out from Pfizer plant for all 50 states in the US

The first batch of coronavirusvaccineswas loaded onto trucks at a Pfizer plant in Portage, Michigan, and shipped out across the country on Sunday morning, a landmark moment in the fight against the deadly virus, according to CNN.

Freight trucks carrying about 184,275 vials of vaccine departed the plant, and the combined 189 boxes of vaccine vials are expected to arrive in all 50 states on Monday.

Another 3,900 vials are expected to ship later Sunday to United States territories, and 400 boxes packed with about 390,000 vials will ship Monday to arrive on Tuesday. There are five doses of vaccine per vial, according to Pfizer.

Boxes containing the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine are prepared for shipping at the Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo manufacturing plant on December 13, 2020, in Michigan. Photo: CNN

The excitement surrounding the shipment even brought out small groups of cheering spectators. At Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the vaccine was loaded onto a FedEx cargo plane, Vicki Royce and her husband gathered outside the facility in celebration.

"This is so exciting -- this is history!" Royce told CNN. "The first vaccines are going out. I'm like crying here."

From its origin in Michigan, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will arrive in about 600 sites across the US in the coming days.

"It's a very good day for America, and for the world," Moncef Slaoui, head of the US's coronavirus vaccine efforts, told Fox News on Sunday.

The US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization to the vaccine on Friday, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted on Saturday to recommend it for people age 16 and older in the US.

CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield must accept the ACIP recommendation before vaccinations can begin.

Covid-19 vaccines are packaged at the Pfizer facility on Sunday. Photo: CNN

The CDC vaccine advisory committee recommended that health care workers and long-term care facility residents be first in line to receive the shot.

The US plans to distribute 14 million vaccine doses by the end of the year, followed by 50 to 80 million doses in January and in February, according to Slaoui.

"All in all, we hope to have immunized 100 million people" by the end of the first quarter of 2021, Slaoui said on Fox News on Sunday.

The vaccine arrives at a critical moment for the US. Hospitalizations due to Covid-19 hit record highs for the seventh day in a row Saturday, and with the winter holidays still, ahead, experts warn that the pandemic could continue to get worse before the larger public receives the vaccination.

Germany tightens lockdown over the festive period to stem the surge in Covid-19 cases

Most stores shut, tight limits on social contacts, no singing in church, and a ban on fireworks sales: Germany is ratcheting up its pandemic restrictions in an effort to cut the stubbornly high rate of coronavirus infections, AP News reported.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said she and the governors of Germany’s 16 states agreed Sunday to step up the country’s lockdown measures from Dec. 16 to Jan. 10 to stop the exponential rise of COVID-19 cases.

“We are forced to act, and we’re acting too,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin, noting that existing restrictions imposed in November failed to significantly reduce the number of new infections.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Germany has risen over the past two weeks from 21.23 new cases per 100,000 people on Nov. 28 to 26 new cases per 100,000 people on Dec. 12.

New lockdown measures will come into force from Wednesday to stem the spread of coronavirus. Photo: CNN

Starting Wednesday, schools nationwide will be closed or switch to homeschooling; most non-food stores will be shuttered, as will businesses such as hairdressers that have so far been allowed to remain open; restaurant takeout will remain permitted, but consumption on-site — including of alcoholic beverages — will be banned.

With the exception of Christmas, the number of people allowed to meet indoors will remain restricted to five, not including children under 14.

The sale of fireworks traditionally used to celebrate New Year’s will also be banned, as will public outdoor gatherings on New Year’s Eve.

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said the government would provide further financial support for businesses affected by the lockdown. German news agency DPA reported that the additional sums set aside amounted to 11.2 billion euros ($13.6 billion).

Employers will be asked to let staff work from home, where possible, for the next month.

Religious services will be permitted, provided minimum distancing rules are in place and masks are worn, though singing will be banned.

Staff in nursing homes will be required to take COVID-19 tests several times a week, and visitors will also have to provide a negative test result before being able to see relatives in care.

South Korea's Moon warns of toughest COVID-19 curbs after two days of record cases

South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in warned on Sunday that COVID-19 restrictions may be raised to the highest level after the second day of record increases in cases as the country battles a harsh third wave of infection, Reuters said.

Presiding over an emergency meeting at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters for the first time since February, Moon urged vigilance and called for an all-out effort to contain the virus.

“Unless the outbreak can be contained now, it has come to the critical point of considering escalating social-distancing measures to the third level,” he said, referring to the tightest curbs under the country’s five-tier system.

Greater Seoul, home to about half of South Korea’s 52 million people, is under level 2.5 restrictions. Gatherings of more than 50 people are banned and restaurants are prohibited from serving customers after 9 p.m.

South Korea faces COVID-19 'emergency' with record cases Photo: Kim Young-Tae/Yonhap

A country that had initial success controlling COVID-19, South Korea reported 1,030 new coronavirus infections on Sunday after 950 the previous day, bringing total infections to 42,766 with 580 deaths.

Of the new cases, 1,002 were locally transmitted, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.

“Our back is against the wall,” Moon said. “This is a crucial moment to devote all our virus control capabilities and administrative power to stopping the coronavirus spread.”

Level 3 curbs would essentially mean a lockdown for the first time in Asia’s fourth-largest economy. Schools would switch to remote learning, companies could allow only essential workers in offices and gatherings of more than 10 people would be banned.

The government will add about 10,000 hospital beds within the next few weeks and temporarily pay some nurses involved in the care of COVID-19 patients an extra 3 million won ($2,748) a month to help overstressed hospitals across the country.

On Saturday, Moon ordered the mobilization of police, military personnel, and public medical doctors to block the spread, which he called an “emergency.”

UK: Royal Borough of Greenwich schools to close from Monday as Covid-19 cases rise

Schools in the London borough of Greenwich will close tomorrow and switch to remote learning after an "exponential growth" in Covid-19 cases, Standard.co.uk reported.

The South East London borough has around 225 cases per 100,000 people - above the national average.

In the first week of December, cases shot up from 151.4 per 100,000 rising 48.6 percent, according to the latest data.

Greenwich is only the 14th highest borough in London for infections with Havering at the top with over double the cases of 470.8 per 100,000 people.

It is unclear if more boroughs will follow Greenwich’s lead and close more schools.

Pupils will be taught online due to school closures in Greenwich. Photo: Sky News

Council leader Cllr Danny Thorpe said in a statement that Public Health England had advised the council to shut schools as the situation in relation to Covid was "escalating extremely quickly."

He wrote: "I have today been briefed by colleagues from Public Health England that the pandemic in Greenwich is now showing signs that we are in a period of exponential growth that demands immediate action.

“We now have the highest rates of infection in Greenwich than at any time since March, and for these reasons, I have therefore asked all schools in Greenwich to close their premises from Monday evening and move to online learning for the duration of the term, with the exception of key worker children and those with specific needs (exactly the same as in the first lockdown).”

Covid-19 case rates are rising in two-thirds of all local areas in England, the latest data shows.

A total of 208 out of 315 local authority areas recorded a week-on-week increase in rates in the seven days to December 9.

France imposes curfew, including New Year's Eve

French Prime Minister Jean Castex ended days of speculation over the year-end holidays by confirming that families would be allowed to travel to celebrate Christmas together. (Photo: AFP/Thomas SAMSON)

The French government said it would lift a six-week-long coronavirus lockdown as expected on Tuesday but impose a curfew from 8pm, including on New Year's Eve, as the number of infections creeps up again.

Prime Minister Jean Castex ended days of speculation over the year-end holidays by confirming that families would be allowed to travel to celebrate Christmas together.

But in a severe blow for the cultural sector, he said that museums, theatres and cinemas, which had been hoping to try to recoup some of their losses over the holidays, would remain closed for an extra three weeks, as will football stadiums.

Castex said the situation had "considerably improved" since France entered a second lockdown on Oct 30, noting that the number of new infections had fallen from nearly 50,000 a day in late October to around 10,000.

But the decline "has slowed over the past several days," he said.

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