World News in Brief: December 9

Governments in Asia could require inbound travellers to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, AirAsia Group's Chief Executive Officer said, with such conditions expected to become a trend in the region.

 A vendor wearing a face mask offers Christmas gifts in the GUM department store on Red Square in Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 8, 2020. (Photo: AFP)
A vendor wearing a face mask offers Christmas gifts in the GUM department store on Red Square in Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 8, 2020. (Photo: AFP)

* An experimental vaccine developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) has 86% efficacy, the health ministry of the United Arab Emirates said, citing an interim analysis of late-stage clinical trials.

* Pfizer cleared the next hurdle in the race to get its vaccine approved for emergency use after the US Food and Drug Administration released documents that did not raise any new issues about its safety or efficacy.

* AstraZeneca and Oxford University have more work to do to confirm whether their vaccine can be 90% effective, a peer-reviewed paper in the Lancet showed.

* Global stocks reached record highs on Wednesday as investors hailed efforts to provide more fiscal stimulus and positive news on COVID-19 vaccines, and sterling made gains as British and European leaders meet for talks on a Brexit trade deal.

* German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that the European Union was looking for a way to lift Hungary and Poland's veto of the European Union's budget while maintaining the rule of law mechanism.

* Mainland China reported 15 new COVID-19 cases for Dec. 8, up from 12 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Wednesday. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China now stands at 86,661. The death toll remains unchanged at 4,634.

* US cases crossed 15 million on Tuesday as President-elect Joe Biden vowed to vaccinate 100 million Americans in his first 100 days in office.

* India reported 32,080 new cases of the coronavirus, taking its total to 9.74 million, data from the federal health ministry showed on Wednesday. India has the world's second-highest caseload, but daily infections have dipped steadily since hitting a peak in September. Of its 9.74 million total cases, around 370,000 are active patients, currently infected with COVID-19.

* Russia on Wednesday reported 26,190 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, including 5,145 in Moscow, taking the national total to 2,541,199 since the pandemic began. Authorities said 559 had died in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 44,718.

* German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that authorities in Europe's largest economy would not be able to provide vaccines to enough people in the first quarter of 2021 to cause a big change in the pandemic's course.

* Sweden's government proposed new temporary legislation to expand its powers to fight the pandemic, giving it greater leeway to implement and enforce lockdown measures such as closing shopping malls and gyms.

* Indonesia reported on Wednesday 171 more deaths from the coronavirus, marking the Southeast Asian country's highest daily rise in fatalities and taking the total number of deaths to 18,171, data from its COVID-19 taskforce showed. The data also showed 6,058 new cases, taking the total number of infections to 592,900.

* France will delay relaxing some COVID-19 lockdown restrictions if necessary to stave off a third wave of infections, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday.

* Roche is partnering with Moderna to include a COVID-19 antibody test in the mRNA specialist's ongoing vaccine trials, the Swiss drugmaker said on Wednesday, potentially demonstrating if the vaccine is working.

* The Abu Dhabi Emergency, Crisis and Disaster Committee is working with local authorities in the UAE capital to resume all economic, cultural, tourist and entertainment activities within two weeks, state Abu Dhabi Media said on Wednesday. The decision comes after the success of precautionary measures against the COVID-19 virus and a low number of confirmed cases, a tweet by Abu Dhabi Media said.

* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 20,815 to 1,218,524, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Wednesday. The reported death toll rose by 590 to 19,932, the tally showed.

* Mexico could order an additional 22 million doses of coronavirus vaccine from Johnson & Johnson's Janssen unit under a memorandum of understanding signed this week, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said on Tuesday.

* Mexico's health ministry on Tuesday reported 11,006 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 800 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 1,193,255 cases and 110,874 deaths.

* Republic of Korea reported 686 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the second-highest daily count since its first infection in January, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.

* Canada is confident there will be no disruption of COVID-19 vaccine supplies even if the United States blocks their export because vaccines are manufactured in several countries, a government official said on Tuesday. US President Donald Trump issued an executive order to ensure Americans are first in line for domestically produced coronavirus vaccines.

* Two oil wells were bombed inside a small oilfield on Wednesday and firefighters are working to put out the flames, oil officials and security sources said. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the bombings at Khabbaz oilfield, 20 km (12 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, the sources said.

* The number of daily coronavirus deaths in Ukraine jumped to 276 from the previous record of 257 fatalities registered in November, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said on Wednesday. He also said 12,585 new coronavirus cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 845,343 cases with 14,204 deaths.

* Cyprus ordered the closure of malls and restaurants until the end of the year to try to subdue an aggressive jump in cases.

* Israel received its first shipment of vaccines on Wednesday and a distributor predicted the country would have enough for about a quarter of the population by the end of the year.

* Turkey's daily deaths rose to a record 211 in the past 24 hours.

Reuters