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Private payrolls fall for the first time since April
Private payrolls contracted in December for the first time since April, reports CNBC’s Jeff Cox.
The number of jobs fell 123,000 during the month, a sharp drop compared to the 60,000 jobs economists had expected. The national job market had improved after widespread business closures in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
–Sara salinas
The EU approves Moderna’s vaccine
Dave Lacknauth, Pharm. D., Director of Pharmacy Services, Broward Health Medical Center displays a vial of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during a press conference on December 23, 2020 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Joe Raedle | fake images
European Union health regulators approved Moderna’s Covid vaccine for use in the 27-nation bloc. It is the second drug of its kind to gain approval from the European Medicines Agency, reports Silvia Amaro of CNBC.
The green light could help boost vaccine launches in Europe, which has faced criticism for a slow pace and occasional setbacks.
Moderna’s vaccine was previously approved in the United Kingdom and the United States, where it is currently distributed and administered. The vaccine, similar to Pfizer’s, is a two-dose regimen and was found in clinical trials to be 94% effective.
—Sara Salinas
Covid variant found in South Africa worries experts
A new strain of the virus that has emerged in South Africa is cause for concern. Similar to a variant that has been discovered in the UK in recent months, the strain that has emerged in South Africa is proving to be much more transmissible.
So far, scientists don’t think any of the new variants are more deadly. But being more communicable means that more people can become infected, and as a result, it could mean more serious infections and more deaths.
Questions are now being raised about whether coronavirus vaccines developed at breakneck speed last year will be effective against significant mutations of the virus, such as the one identified in South Africa. CNBC takes a look at what we know (and what we don’t) about this new strain.
–Holly ellyatt
