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A restaurant eating ban in Los Angeles was due to go into effect today as authorities warned Americans to stay home for Thanksgiving, while some parts of Europe considered looser restrictions during the Christmas season. .
The three-week order in America’s second-largest city will begin when California faces record cases of Covid-19, and its health secretary urges people to avoid large family gatherings.
“It’s so important to say no even when it comes to the closest people in our family,” said Dr. Mark Ghaly, adding that he had excluded his own mother from the planned celebration.
The US government’s health protection agency has for the first time asked Americans not to travel during annual vacations, which normally bring families together tomorrow.
With the United States facing a dizzying number of deaths and new cases, plans to deliver a vaccine to Americans are accelerating.
More than six million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine will be available in the first week after it is authorized for emergency use, which will likely occur next month, according to officials.
General Gustave Perna, director of operations for the government’s Operation Warp Speed, told reporters that some 40 million doses of vaccine would be ready by the end of December.
Yesterday there were more than 86,000 hospitalizations for coronavirus in the United States, a record number. The latest figures showed that the country registered more than 2,000 deaths and 167,000 new cases in the last 24 hours.
“We’re on fire with Covid,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told CNN while advocating for stricter lockdown measures.
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As the US grappled with its crisis, European nations were slowly relaxing measures ahead of their own Christmas holidays, as a second wave of infections slowed after weeks of lockdowns on the continent.
In a televised speech last night, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that stores could reopen on Saturday and that stay-at-home orders across the country would be lifted from December 15.
“We will be able to travel without authorization, even between regions, and spend Christmas with our families,” Macron said, while warning that some restrictions would be maintained to prevent a third wave.
British authorities also announced that restrictions on social mixing and travel would be eased across the UK during Christmas.
Germany plans to halt Christmas as Covid-19 deaths hit record highs
Germany reported a record 410 deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, before all 16 federal state leaders and Chancellor Angela Merkel met today to discuss restrictions for the Christmas and New Year holidays.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 18,633 to 961,320, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed, 5,015 less than the record rise reported on Friday.
However, the death toll rose from 410 to 14,771, up from 305 a week ago, and just 49 on November 2, the day Germany introduced the apartment blockade.
Saxony Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer has warned of a collapse in healthcare in the coming weeks.
“The situation in hospitals is worrying … We cannot guarantee medical care at this high level (of infections),” he told MDR radio.
The federal states are expected to decide to extend the “shutdown light” until December 20. This will keep bars, restaurants and entertainment venues closed while schools and shops will remain open.
They also plan to reduce the number of people allowed to meet to five as of December 1, but allow gatherings of up to 10 people during Christmas and New Years for families and friends to celebrate together, according to a draft proposal.
The heads of state will also discuss whether to divide school classes into smaller units and teach them at different times, as well as a possible earlier start to the Christmas school holidays.
The EU must not relax Covid-19 measures too quickly – Von der Leyen
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, warned against relaxing the coronavirus lockdown measures too quickly, telling the European Parliament that there was a risk of a third wave of infections.
“I know that store owners, bartenders and restaurant waiters want to end restrictions. But we must learn from the summer and not repeat the same mistakes,” said Ms Von der Leyen.
“Relaxing too fast and too much is a risk for a third wave after Christmas,” he told MEPs.
Currently, there are several potential vaccines internationally that have undergone or are undergoing clinical trials, with candidates from Moderna, AstraZeneca / Oxford University and Pfizer-BioNTech leading the way.
Several European countries, including Great Britain, France, Austria and Spain, have pledged to start vaccinating by early 2021 at the latest.
Even once a vaccine is available, any return to normalcy for a global economy ravaged by the pandemic seems a long way off.
But optimism sparked by vaccines has given virus-weary citizens around the world a boost in recent days, as well as boosting stock markets.
Asian markets rallied on Wednesday after a highly successful performance on Wall Street, as vaccine successes and the easing of political uncertainty in the United States following Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election boosted the confidence of the investors.
Still high death rates and a spike in new cases in several Asian nations, however, tempered the excitement.
More than 1.4 million people have died worldwide, and the number of cases globally is approaching 60 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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