An expert committee put people 75 and older and essential workers like firefighters, teachers and grocery store workers next in line for COVID-19 shots as a second vaccine began rolling out Sunday to hospitals, a desperately needed boost as the nation works to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control.The developments occurred as the nation seeks to ramp up a vaccination program that only began in the last week and so far has given initial shots to about 556,000 Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The vaccines from Pfizer Inc. and Germany’s BioNTech, as well as the one from Moderna Inc., which was approved by regulators last week go first to health care workers and residents of long-term care homes, based on the advice of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.The committee voted 13-1 on Sunday to put people 75 and older as well as certain front-line workers …

As COVID-19 cases skyrocketed before the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus response, warned Americans to “be vigilant” and limit celebrations to “your immediate household.”For many Americans that guidance has been difficult to abide, including for Birx herself.The day after Thanksgiving, she traveled to one of her vacation properties on Fenwick Island in Delaware. She was accompanied by three generations of her family from two households. Birx, her husband Paige Reffe, a daughter, son-in-law and two young grandchildren were present.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked Americans not to travel over the holidays and discourages indoor activity involving members of different households. “People who do not currently live in your housing unit, such as college students who are returning home from school for the holidays, should be considered part of different households,” the CDC said.  Even in Birx’s everyday life, there …

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said early Sunday there are 76.3 million global COVID-19 cases.The U.S. continues to lead the world in case numbers at 17.6 million, followed by India with 10 million and Brazil with 7.2 million.U.S. lawmakers are expected to vote Sunday on a nearly $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package. The package includes, among other things, $300 supplemental unemployment benefits and $600 direct stimulus payments to many Americans.“We can’t continue with Christmas as planned,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday as he announced new restrictions for London and southern England, where a mutant strain of the coronavirus is spreading and where there is now a virtual lockdown, with people urged to stay home.All nonessential stores in the region are set to close, and people should not enter or leave the British capital or large parts of southeastern England.South Korea recorded 1,097 new infections Sunday, the fifth …

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said early Sunday there are 76.3 million global COVID-19 cases.The U.S. continues to lead the world in case numbers at 17.6 million, followed by India with 10 million and Brazil with 7.2 million.U.S. lawmakers are expected to vote Sunday on a nearly $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package. The package includes, among other things, $300 supplemental unemployment benefits and $600 direct stimulus payments to many Americans.“We can’t continue with Christmas as planned,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday as he announced new restrictions for London and southern England, where a mutant strain of the coronavirus is spreading and where there is now a virtual lockdown, with people urged to stay home.All nonessential stores in the region are set to close, and people should not enter or leave the British capital or large parts of southeastern England.South Korea recorded 1,097 new infections Sunday, the fifth …

In China’s Wuhan, the original epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, the city’s residents are returning to normal life, even as they continue to grapple with memories of the early outbreak, which struck fear in the city.It’s been almost seven months since the city recorded a locally transmitted case of the disease due to a strict city-wide lockdown and a mass testing event of almost all the city’s 11 million residents.Today, restaurants, shopping streets and bars are crowded, but locals are still experiencing the lasting impact of the lockdown on mental health and work.Reuters asked people throughout Wuhan to share images and videos they took during their outbreak, as well as their hopes for 2021, as the city approaches the one-year anniversary of the outbreak. City health officials released the first public notice of the then-unknown virus on Dec. 31, 2019.Like the city itself, most people are enduringly optimistic, even as …

U.S. distribution of Moderna Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine began Saturday, with more than 3,700 sites scheduled to start receiving and administering shots as soon as Monday, vastly widening the rollout started last week by Pfizer Inc.Amid record coronavirus infections and deaths, Moderna has moved vaccine supplies from its manufacturing plants to warehouses operated by distributor McKesson Corp.Workers on Saturday were packing vaccines into containers and loading them onto trucks, U.S. Army Gen. Gustave Perna said during a news conference. Trucks will set out Sunday and shipments will start reaching health care providers as soon as Monday, he said.Doses of vaccine must travel with security guards, including U.S. Marshals, and will be stored in locked refrigerators. U.S. plans call for at-risk groups, such as elderly people in nursing homes and medical workers, to receive injections first.The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved an emergency use authorization for Moderna’s vaccine, the second COVID-19 …

California hospitals are battling to find beds for patients amid fears the explosion of coronavirus cases will exhaust staffing resources.As of Saturday, nearly 17,400 people were hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections — more than double the previous peak reached in July — and a state model that uses current data to forecast future trends shows the number could reach 75,000 by mid-January.More than 3,600 confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients were in intensive care units. All of Southern California and the 12-county San Joaquin Valley to the north have exhausted their regular intensive care unit capacity, and some hospitals have begun using surge space, meaning space converted for intensive care. Overall, the state’s ICU capacity was just 2% Saturday.The enormous crush of cases in the last six weeks has California’s death toll spiraling ever higher. Another 272 fatalities were reported Saturday and in the last week nearly 1,600 people …

Even as new infections slip to the lowest levels in three months, on Saturday, India crossed the 10 million mark of total infections since the pandemic began, second behind the U.S. mark of 17 million, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.India’s falling infections, down from its record of about 100,000 new cases daily to about 25,000 cases reported Saturday, give health experts some reason to hope. India has suffered more than 145,000 deaths, Johns Hopkins says.”If we can sustain our declining trend for the next two to three months, we should be able to start the vaccination program and start moving away from the pandemic,” Dr. Randeep Guleria, a government health expert, told The Associated Press.Some of the world’s biggest vaccine makers are located in India, and there are five vaccines in clinical trials. Two vaccines, by Oxford University-AstraZeneca and India’s Bharat Biotech, are nearing authorization for emergency use. …

The Swiss government Friday ordered all bars, restaurants, cultural venues and sports facilities to close next week because of a surging number of coronavirus cases.At a news conference, Health Minister Alain Berset said the new restrictions, which take effect Tuesday, are necessary because the situation in health facilities ”is not tenable in the long term.”The government will also restrict the number of people who can be inside stores, which must close after 7 p.m. and on Sundays and public holidays.While the closures include restaurants and bars at ski resorts, the federal government is leaving it to Switzerland’s 26 cantons — or states — to decide whether to close skiing facilities.But Berset cautioned they should “think carefully” about their decision “because hospitals are full and putting a lot of people on snow slopes can lead to an increase in accidents and we need to be very careful.”The Swiss health minister’s cautionary stance …

Thailand says a local laboratory’s pact with Britain’s AstraZeneca will make the Southeast Asian country the regional hub for supplies of what’s likely to be one of the leading vaccines against COVID-19 as governments scramble to lock in supplies.Bangkok-based Siam Bioscience signed a letter of intent with AstraZeneca late last month to make 200 million doses of the British pharmaceutical firm’s COVID-19 vaccine, AZD1222, said Nakorn Premsri, director of Thailand’s National Vaccine Institute.Thailand’s Public Health Ministry and the local conglomerate SCG, with its packaging and chemicals divisions, also joined the deal.Nakorn said most of the doses would head abroad.”Thailand will secure only 26 million doses. We may ask for more, but it will not be a big part, so maybe more than half of that [200 million] can be exported,” he told VOA.”It’s in the letter of intent that we made together with Siam Bioscience, AstraZeneca, SCG and Ministry of …

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to get the coronavirus vaccine on live television Friday. His vaccination comes as surveys reveal some Americans are reluctant to receive the vaccine because of safety and efficacy concerns.The coronavirus surge in California’s Los Angeles County is so dire that the county’s public health department posted on Twitter: “Every hour, on average, 2 people are dying of COVID-19 in LA County.”The U.S. television network CBS reported there are so few hospital beds available in intensive care units in Los Angeles that some coronavirus victims are waiting up to seven hours in ambulances for beds.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 14 MB540p | 18 MB720p | 33 MB1080p | 70 MBOriginal | 85 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioFrench President Emmanuel Macron has joined the list …

The head of the U.N. Migration Agency said the coronavirus pandemic has affected people worldwide, including migrants — many of whom have gotten ill, lost jobs or been stranded in destination countries.  “As usual in all crises, migrants are the first ones to lose jobs,” International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director General Antonio Vitorino told VOA ahead of International Migrants Day on Friday. “The World Bank forecasts, for instance, a drop in remittances to the countries of origin of around 20% this year, which will have a terrible impact in the living conditions of the countries of origin of those migrants.”  FILE – Antonio Vitorino, Director General of the International Organization for Migration, attends a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 29, 2019.He said virus-related lockdowns, travel restrictions and border closures have also stranded about 3 million migrants all over the world.  The IOM estimates there are 272 million migrants …

The United States is expanding its rollout of the newly approved COVID-19 vaccine to hundreds of distribution centers where thousands of health care workers are expected to be vaccinated. More from VOA’s Mariama Diallo. …

A U.S. panel endorsed emergency use of a second COVID-19 vaccine Thursday.A committee of independent expert advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted, after seven hours of discussion, to recommend the use of a vaccine developed by U.S. drug manufacturer Moderna, one week after federal regulators authorized the first vaccine for emergency use. “The evidence that has been studied in great detail on this vaccine highly outweighs any of the issues we’ve seen,” Dr. Hayley Gans, Stanford University Medical Center, said Thursday. FILE – Biotechnology company Moderna protocol files for COVID-19 vaccinations are kept at the Research Centers of America in Hollywood, Florida, Aug. 13, 2020.The news comes as the United States has recorded nearly 310,000 deaths from the virus, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. There are more than 17 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, in the U.S. FDA authorization of …

Lawmakers in the lower house of Spain’s parliament approved a bill Thursday, amid ongoing protests, that would allow people to lawfully end their lives if they suffer from serious or incurable diseases.The bill, which is awaiting Senate approval, passed 198-138, in the face of staunch opposition from the conservative People’s Party, its supporters and religious groups.FILE – Santiago Abascal, leader of far-right party Vox, speaks at parliament in Madrid, Spain, Oct. 22, 2020.Many of the protesters who gathered outside parliament Thursday held banners that read “Government of death.”“The euthanasia law is a defeat for civilization and a victory for the culture of death, for those who believe that some lives are more worthy than others,” far-right Vox leader Santiago Abascal said in a video on social media.But Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa told lawmakers the society “cannotFILE – Spain’s Health Minister Salvador Illa speaks at Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, Spain, …

People in the Northern Hemisphere are in for a once-in-a-millennium treat on December 21 — the winter solstice and the longest night of the year — when Jupiter and Saturn will meet in a “great conjunction,” the closest they will be seen in the sky together for nearly 800 years.Astronomers use the term “conjunction” to describe any time two celestial bodies appear to meet in the sky, as viewed from Earth. But when Saturn and Jupiter, the two largest planets in the solar system, appear to meet in the sky, they call it a “great” conjunction.Astronomers say the two planets regularly appear to pass each other in the solar system from Earth’s perspective, with their positions being aligned in the sky about once every 20 years.What makes this year’s great conjunction so significant is that the two planets have not passed this close to one another in 400 years, and …

In Tanzania, female circumcision, also known as female genital mutilation, is still practiced among some ethnic groups as a rite of passage into womanhood. Many girls are forced or coerced into it by their family to avoid being shunned, and end up scarred for life. To bridge the gap between health and tradition, health care nonprofit Amref has been promoting an alternative rite of passage for girls. Charles Kombe reports from Tanga, Tanzania.Camera: Rajabu Hassan Video editor: Jon Spier   …

California expects to receive a little over two million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in December, which would be enough to vaccinate half of the state’s health care workers. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetyan …