Several countries across the globe banned passenger flights from the United Kingdom, alarmed by the detection of a new, fast-spreading coronavirus strain in the country that prompted authorities to lock down more than 16 million people.
EUROPE
* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair an emergency response meeting on Monday to discuss international travel, in particular the flow of freight in and out of Britain.
* Italy has detected a patient infected with the new strain of the coronavirus also found in Britain, the health ministry said.
* Millions of mink in Denmark that were ordered to be culled in early November after hundreds of farms suffered outbreaks of the coronavirus will be dug up from mass graves after some had resurfaced.
AMERICAS
* An advisory panel recommended U.S. frontline essential workers and people 75 and older should be next in line to get inoculated as the distribution of Moderna Inc’s vaccine, the second approved coronavirus vaccine, began across the country.
* Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said that he did not think the world’s rush for a vaccine was justified because the pandemic is in his view coming to an end.
* The United States is monitoring the new strain of COVID-19 emerging in the United Kingdom, multiple U.S. officials said, adding that it was unclear whether the mutated variant had made its way to America.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Australia’s most populous state reported its lowest one-day rise in new COVID-19 cases in three days, stoking cautious optimism that authorities have contained an outbreak in Sydney’s northern beachside suburbs.
* South Korea recorded its highest daily death toll from the coronavirus, as a surge in infections strains the health system and prompted police raids on venues suspected of violating social distancing rules.
* Thailand began testing tens of thousands of people for coronavirus and extended curbs on movement, a day after locking down a province following the country’s worst outbreak yet.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* The total number of coronavirus cases in Africa crossed 2.5 million on Saturday, according to a Reuters tally, as a second wave of infections hits the continent.
* Israel kicked off a coronavirus vaccination drive with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoking the Bible and the 1969 lunar landing as he got the country’s first injection.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Europe’s medicines regulator will on Monday assess the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by U.S. company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, with a green light to put Europe on course to start inoculations within a week.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Asian stocks faltered and sterling slid as unease over a new coronavirus strain that was shutting much of the United Kingdom offset news that a deal had finally been struck on a long-awaited U.S. stimulus bill.
* U.S. congressional leaders reached agreement on a $900 billion package to provide the first new aid in months to an economy and individuals battered by the surging coronavirus pandemic, with votes likely on Monday.
* Japan’s cabinet approved a record $1.03 trillion budget draft for the next fiscal year starting in April 2021, as the coronavirus and stimulus spending put pressure on already dire public finances.
* A bipartisan legislative deal unveiled by U.S. lawmakers on Sunday will grant U.S. airlines $15 billion in new payroll assistance that will allow them to return more than 32,000 furloughed workers to payrolls through March 31, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters.
REUTERS