Coronavirus news live: Wales plans ID vaccine cards

Coronavirus infection rates in England have fallen in all regions except the Northeast, according to new data.

In the week through Nov. 28, the percentage of people who tested positive for the disease is estimated to have decreased across much of the country, the Office for National Statistics said in its latest Covid survey.

In the northeast, rates appear to have stabilized, the ONS added.

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US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn said Friday that the agency will act quickly to review a coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech and expects it to make a decision this month.

Hahn declined to give a specific timeline for how long approval of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine would take, saying only that the FDA would act “very quickly” after a vaccine advisory committee meets Dec. 10.

Many federal officials await approval of the vaccine within days of that meeting, although an FDA official recently said the approval decision could take weeks.

Republican Senator Mitt Romney has criticized Donald Trump for what he called a lack of leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, calling the president’s response to Covid-19 a “great human tragedy.”

Romney, the presidential candidate defeated by the party in 2012, lamented that the pandemic has become a “political issue” in an interview with CNN, adding that people are “sadly dying” because the message was not clear to him. public.

“Well this [coronavirus] It has not been the center of his rhetoric, apparently, and I think it is a great human tragedy, without a doubt, ”Romney said when asked about the president’s attention to making claims about voter fraud.

According to the Office for National Statistics, an estimated 521,300 people in England had coronavirus from November 22-28, representing a drop of more than 100,000 from the previous week.

Sky News has released a clip that provides a bit more detail on the numbers.

Primark lost £ 430 million in sales during the nationwide shutdown in England and restrictions in the rest of the UK, France, Belgium and Austria.

The cut-price fashion retailer had previously forecast sales to drop by £ 375 million. It has reopened stores in England, France, Belgium and the Republic of Ireland last week with extended opening hours. Eleven stores will open 24 hours a day to try to make up for lost sales in the run-up to Christmas.

Shoppers lined up outside some branches before the reopening, but 34 sites remain closed, including all stores in Northern Ireland and Austria.

The independent business reporter Ben chapman has the latest:

The Swedish government has announced that 600,000 elderly people in nursing homes, as well as the staff and families of patients, will receive the country’s first vaccines.

Stockholm is expected to receive five of the six vaccines purchased under the EU’s common procurement scheme, and the Pfizer vaccine is likely to be approved by the European regulator later this month.

After a long wait, the US will finally implement a contact tracing scheme for international arrivals.

The initiative of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Delta Air Lines will begin on December 15.

Passengers aboard Delta aircraft will be asked to voluntarily submit information, including their name, number, and address during their stay in the US This will then be passed securely to the CDC.

Helen coffey, The independent Deputy Director of Travel, has the details:

About a third of the Spanish population would be happy to contract a coronavirus immediately, while 55.2% of people would prefer the effects to be known.

However, 8.4 percent of those surveyed said they would not take any Covid-19 vaccines.

The findings were part of a study conducted by pollster CIS in late November.

People living in Wales will receive a “credit card size” token once they have received the coronavirus vaccine, the Welsh health minister said.

Vaughan Gething said the ID cards would act as proof of inoculation and also help remind people to come back for their second dose.

In other parts of the UK, no plans for so-called “immunity passports” have been announced.

Norway hopes to use three promising vaccines, developed by AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech, to inoculate its population against Covid-19, the country’s health minister said.

Oslo is expected to receive 2.5 million doses of vaccines in the first three months of 2021, to be administered to 1.25 million people, almost a quarter of the Norwegian population.