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More than 600,000 people in the UK have received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine since inoculations began in the country earlier this month, the British government said on Thursday.
EUROPE
* A new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic coronavirus that has been spreading rapidly in Britain has been found in Germany for the first time, the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said.
* Turkey will sign an agreement with Pfizer and BioNTech for 4.5 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to be delivered at the end of March, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.
* French President Emmanuel Macron shows no more symptoms of COVID-19, the Elysee office said.
* Denmark has identified 33 infections with the new variant of the coronavirus that has been spreading rapidly in parts of Britain.
* Prime Minister Ana Brnabic received the first injection of the COVID-19 vaccine from Serbia, kicking off a massive inoculation campaign with doses developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
AMERICAS
* US lawmakers blocked attempts to disrupt a $ 2.3 trillion coronavirus aid and government spending package, rejecting President Donald Trump’s demand for sweeping changes and putting benefits for millions of Americans at risk.
* US states, facing a delay in administering coronavirus vaccines, are asking medical and nursing students, and even firefighters, to help inject and release healthcare workers battling a raging pandemic in crowded hospitals.
* Mexico inoculated its first person against COVID-19 to start the fight against a pandemic that has killed 120,000 people in the country and hit the economy, celebrating a Christmas display that also began in other parts of Latin America.
PACIFIC ASIA
* China will suspend direct flights to and from Britain indefinitely for fear of a new strain of the coronavirus, said Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.
* Indonesia has banned travelers from Britain and tightened the rules for those arriving from Europe and Australia to try to limit the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus.
* China’s capital Beijing issued a series of coronavirus-related warnings on Thursday ahead of the peak travel season from New Year’s Day to Chinese Lunar New Year in February, but failed to impose draconian restrictions.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Another new variant of the novel coronavirus appears to have emerged in Nigeria, the head of Africa’s disease watchdog said, warning that more research is needed.
* Israel will impose a third national blockade to combat growing COVID-19 infections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, as the country carries out a vaccination campaign.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* A COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech is 91.25% effective, based on interim data from a late-stage trial in Turkey, a potentially much better result than that reported in a separate trial of the vaccine in Brazil .
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Concerns about the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the upcoming United States Senate elections in Georgia are clouding prospects for what has historically been a seasonally strong period for stocks.
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