World watches as UK gets set for first COVID-19 vaccinations
Britain’s health care providers were gearing up to start giving the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, less than a week after the United Kingdom became the first Western nation to approve a COVID-19 vaccine.
Vaccinations are set to begin Tuesday in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland said it would start administering the vaccine early in the week but did not specify which day.
The process, which is complicated by the need to store the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine under strict conditions and give each recipient two doses, three weeks apart, will be closely watched from around the world.
As the United States nears an average of 200,000 coronavirus cases a day, the latest numbers from Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 dashboard show more than 1.5 million deaths worldwide. Some experts say “behavior and cold weather” are behind the current surge gripping American communities.
Here’s an update on developments. Scroll or swipe further for in-depth coverage.
- A coronavirus relief package expected to be released Monday would provide about $300 in extra U.S. weekly unemployment benefits but leave the issue of $1,200 payments to most Americans for President-elect Biden to wrestle over with a new Congress next year.
- Major stock indexes were off to a mostly lower start Monday on Wall Street, easing off the record highs they set on Friday, as traders worry anew that rising coronavirus cases over the winter holidays will extend the economy’s pandemic-induced slump.
- It’s back to school again for some New York City schoolchildren, weeks after the schools were closed to in-person learning because of rising COVID-19 cases.
- The pandemic’s effects are rippling through child care, disproportionately affecting Black and Latino-owned centers in an industry that has long relied on providers of color.
- Chinese vaccine company Sinovac announced Monday that it is planning to complete a new facility to double its annual vaccine production capacity to 600 million doses by the end of the year, while also securing a $500 million investment in a boost to its COVID-19 vaccine development efforts.
- A panel of medical experts in Germany is recommending that nursing home residents, people over 80 and key medical personnel in acute and elderly care should receive coronavirus vaccines first when they become available.
For more summaries and full reports, please select from the articles below. Scroll further for the latest virus numbers.
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