Indonesia has received its first shipment of coronavirus vaccine from China with over a million doses, with another 1.8 million expected to be sent next month.
And in the UK, the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are set to be administered on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, millions of people across California prepare for strict restrictions within hours as the US state records more than 30,000 cases in a day.
Globally, COVID-19 deaths have surpassed 1.5 million with more than 67 million infections.
Here are the latest updates:
Iran’s top banker says US blocking COVID-19 vaccine purchase
The United States is actively trying to prevent Iran’s efforts to buy a COVID-19 vaccine through COVAX, a global initiative undertaken by the World Health Organization, according to the chief of Iran’s central bank.
Abdolnasser Hemmati said it must be “recorded in historical memory” that Iranian efforts to buy a vaccine through COVAX have been hampered due to money transfer issues arising due to the sanctions imposed by the US against Iran.
Read Maziar Motamedi’s full story here.
Thousands of Hungarians could participate in trials of Russian vaccine
Some 3,000 to 5,000 Hungarians could participate in clinical trials for Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, Hungarian Human Resources Minister Miklos Kasler said on Facebook.
Hungary’s plans to conduct trials of and possibly produce the Russian vaccine, an unprecedented step for an EU member state, have added to existing friction with Brussels.
Under EU rules, Sputnik V must be authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) before it can be marketed in any state of the 27-nation bloc, the EMA has said.
Turkey ends first weekend lockdown
Turkey has ended its first weekend of partial lockdown, while daily overnight curfews continue. The restrictions were imposed last week when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said citizens would not be allowed to leave home between 9pm and 5am on weekdays, or at all on weekends.
“Life is back to normal across Turkey, especially in the capital Istanbul,” said Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, pointing at open shops and cafes along Istiklal street, one of the city centre’s main avenues.
Despite restrictions, coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours hit above 30,000, with more than 190 reported deaths.
Denmark shuts down parts of the country
Denmark is about to implement further lockdown measures in parts of the country to curb a recent spike in coronavirus infections.
The news was given by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen who said bars, restaurants, museums and cinemas will have to close on December 9 in 38 municipalities, including Copenhagen.
As part of the restrictions, which will be in place until January 3, students in upper primary school, high schools and universities will be sent home.
Pakistan: COVID-19 patients die after oxygen supply runs out
Seven coronavirus patients have died in a hospital in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar after oxygen supplies run too low.
The accident took place at the Lady Reading Hospital where almost 100 patients in an isolation ward were left for hours on reduced oxygen because of delivery delays. Most of them included COVID-19 cases.
“An investigation later showed that there was criminal negligence, because nobody was manning the storage tanks with what was supposed to have a minimum of 10,000 litres of oxygen available,” said Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder reporting from Islamabad. “However there was none, there was no back-up supply either and no staff on location,” Hyder added.
2021 edition of Paris Air Show cancelled
Next year’s edition of the Paris Air Show has been cancelled due to COVID-19, according to organisers.
The biannual show, usually held in June, is the world’s key event for the aerospace industry, showcasing civilian and military aircraft and equipment.
No need to impose broad lockdown: Kremlin
The Kremlin said there was no need to impose lockdown restrictions to curb the sharp rise in coronavirus cases since September and that the current set of measures in place were widely seen by authorities as enough.
Comments were made as infections in Russia surged to record highs in recent weeks. Earlier on Monday, authorities confirmed 28,142 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, including 7,279 in Moscow.
Pakistan team hit ‘mentally, physically’ by isolation in NZ
Pakistan’s cricketers say they have been “mentally and physically” affected by New Zealand’s strict COVID-19 protocols, which have kept the players holed up in their quarantine hotel for nearly two weeks.
Coach Misbah-ul-Haq said the team was looking forward to exiting managed isolation, with New Zealand Cricket saying the latest virus tests had all come back negative and they should be allowed out on Tuesday.
Read the full story here.
Sinovac secures $515m to double vaccine production capacity
China’s Sinovac Biotech has secured $515m in funding to double the production capacity of its coronavirus vaccine with efficacy data on its experimental medicine due this month.
The investment from China’s Sino Biopharmaceutical comes as Sinovac expands supply deals and trials of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine CoronaVac with more countries following positive results in early to mid-stage clinical trials.
Read the full story here.
France unlikely to reach 5,000 daily cases goal
Eric Caumes, one of France’s top coronavirus experts, said today that the number of new cases per day is unlikely to fall to a 5,000 target by December 15, as the population is not sufficiently respecting physical distancing measures.
The head of infectious diseases at Paris hospital La Pitié-Salpêtrière, also warned that if the French are not careful over Christmas and year-end holidays, it will lead to a third wave of the virus in mid-January.
President Emmanuel Macron has said the French lockdown could be lifted on December 15, if by then the number of new infections per day has fallen to 5,000.
Russia approves clinical trials for Chinese vaccine
Russia has granted approval for clinical trials to be held for the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine Ad5-Ncov involving 8,000 volunteers, according to the Interfax news agency.
Ad5-nCoV is a vaccine candidate co-developed by CanSino Biologics and a Chinese military-backed research unit.
Indonesia received 1.2 million Chinese vaccine doses
Indonesia has received 1.2 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine made by China’s Sinovac, officials said, as the world’s fourth-most populous nation struggles to get soaring case rates under control.
The doses arrived in Jakarta late Sunday on a flight from Beijing, with another 1.8 million expected to be sent next month.
Although Chinese regulators have yet to clear any of the country’s vaccines for mass distribution, they have approved some advanced candidates for emergency use.
Britain’s vaccine distribution under way
Britain is getting ready to administer the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, with the National Health System giving top priority to vaccinating the over-80s, front-line healthcare workers and care home staff and residents.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine needs to be kept at -70C (-94F) and only lasts five days in a regular fridge. For that reason, it will first be administered in 50 hospitals. About 800,000 doses are expected to be available within the first week.
International flights back to Melbourne after 5 months
The Australian city of Melbourne welcomed its first international passenger flight in five months, an arrival that will test the state of Victoria’s revamped hotel quarantine system.
More than 20,000 infections were recorded in Victoria earlier this year when hotel staff contracted the virus from people returning from overseas. The outbreak has been widely blamed on failures of private contractors to follow protocol.
The new system will greet Australians arriving on a flight from Sri Lanka, who no longer be allowed to leave their rooms under the new hotel quarantine restrictions.
India’s Serum Institute seeks approval for vaccine
The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine producer by volume, has sought government approval for emergency-use authorisation of the coronavirus vaccine that it developed in partnership with the University of Oxford and British drugmaker AstraZeneca.
“As promised, before the end of 2020, @SerumInstIndia has applied for emergency use authorisation for the first made-in-India vaccine, COVISHIELD,” the company CEO Adar Poonawalla said on Twitter.
The experimental vaccine can be stored at two to eight degrees Celsius and can be distributed more easily in India, which has the world’s second-highest number of infections at 9.6 million.
Read the full story here.
Military to help with COVID-19 surge in S Korea, Japan
South Korea and Japan are deploying their militaries to assist healthcare workers in combatting COVID-19, with South Korean soldiers called in to expand coronavirus testing and tracing and Japanese military nurses tapped to fill a shortage of staff at hospitals in the hard-hit regions of Hokkaido and Osaka.
Moon Jae-in, the president of South Korea, ordered the government to mobilise “every available” resource to track infections and to expand testing by deploying the military and more people from the public service, presidential Blue House spokesman Chung Man-ho told a briefing.
Read the full story here.
California imposes stay-at-home order
A new stay-at-home order has been been imposed on Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, as the coronavirus crisis spirals out of control with a speed that has exceeded health officials’ most dire projections.
Some 33 million Californians will be subject to the new order, representing 84 percent of the state’s population. The state mandated the restrictions in the Southland and Central Valley as capacity in hospital intensive care units hit dangerously low levels.
