Coronavirus live news: UK records 21,502 new cases and 519 deaths; Peru suspends trials of China vaccine | World news

The share of Brazilians unwilling to take any Covid-19 vaccine grew to 22% this week, from 9% in August, and most said they would not accept one made in China, a new poll showed on Saturday, as president Jair Bolsonaro’s comments stoked wider scepticism.

The survey by pollster Datafolha found 73% of respondents plan to take a shot and 5% do not know if they will, compared with 89% and 3%, respectively, in August.

Late last month, Bolsonaro said he would not take any coronavirus vaccine that becomes available.

One of the world’s most prominent coronavirus sceptics, Bolsonaro said refusal was his “right” and expressed concerns specifically about the vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac and produced in conjunction with Sao Paulo state government’s Butantan Institute, Reuters reports.

According to Datafolha, only 47% of participants would take a vaccine made in China, while 50% said they would not take it and 3% said they were undecided.

The figures showed a correlation between vaccine rejection and trust in Bolsonaro.

A total of 33% of people who said they always trust Bolsonaro are unwilling to take a shot, against 16% of those who say they would never trust the president.

France recorded 13,947 new coronavirus infections in the 24 hours to Saturday, while the Covid-19 death toll rose by 199, compared with 304 deaths recorded on Friday.

Friday’s new infections stood at 13,406, and Thursday’s at 14,750. The country’s overall official coronavirus death toll climbed to 57,761.

On 30 October, France put its second national lockdown in place to contain the second wave of infections.

Some of the restrictions have since been eased, and non-essential shops were allowed to reopen on 28 November.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Saturday reported 15,718,811 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 244,011 from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 3,013 to 294,535.

On Friday, the office of the governor of California, one of the worst affected states in the US, issued emergency alerts as intensive care units across the state came close to being at capacity.

Public health officials warned that Los Angeles County could see “catastrophic suffering and death” in the coming weeks, as the nation’s most populous county reported a record 13,737 cases on Friday, bringing the county’s total to more than 500,000.

California officials reported 37,124 cases on Friday, the highest one-day total of the pandemic so far.

Scores of shoppers flocked to central London on the second-to-last weekend before Christmas.

Regent Street, one of the British capital’s busiest shopping streets, has been pedestrianised in the lead-up to Christmas to encourage more shopping and safe distances.

It comes as British health secretary, Matt Hancock, said it is “not inevitable” that London will be placed under tighter coronavirus restrictions ahead of next week’s review of the three-tier system in England.

Top US Food and Drug Administration regulators said on Saturday that most Americans with allergies should be safe to receive the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and Germany’s BioNTech SE.

The FDA, which authorised the nation’s first Covid-19 vaccine on Friday night, said that only people who have previously had severe allergic reactions to vaccines or ingredients in this particular vaccine should avoid getting the shot, Reuters reports.

After Britain began inoculations this week, two people with severe allergies reported side effects and the British medicine regulator advised that anyone with a history of anaphylaxis to a medicine or food should not get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

“About 1.6% of the population has had a severe allergic reaction of some sort or another to a food or some environmental aspect and we would really not like to have that many people not be able to receive the vaccine,” Dr Peter Marks, director of the FDA division that authorised the vaccine, said at a press conference.

The vaccine is seen as a key tool in stemming the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 300,000 people in the United States.

The FDA advised people with allergies to consult with their doctors to make sure that they are not allergic to any of the component of the vaccine.

Pfizer executives said on Friday that there had been no cases of severe allergic reactions to the vaccine during its nearly 44,000 volunteer late-stage clinical trial.

That trial excluded people with a history of severe allergic reactions to any vaccine or to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine’s ingredients.

The US is poised to hit a record 16 million Covid-19 cases in the coming days and deaths are closing in on the 300,000 mark, even as millions of doses of a new vaccine are expected to start being distributed across America before Sunday.

The first vaccine was approved late Friday by the US Food and Drug Administration and is expected to kick off an unparalleled mass-inoculation campaign to end the pandemic that has upended daily life in the United States and devastated its economy.

The first US Covid-19 vaccine shipments will arrive at 145 locations around the country on Monday morning, US Army General Gus Perna said on Saturday during a press briefing, Reuters reports.

The United States authorised the Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE Covid-19 vaccine on Friday evening.

Perna, who is chief operating officer of the government’s Operation Warp Speed programme, said it would start to ship the vaccine on Sunday.

“Make no mistake, distribution has begun,” Perna said.

The Philippines recorded 1,301 new Covid-19 infections on Saturday, pushing the country’s total to more than 448,000, the Department of Health said.

The agency’s case bulletin showed that 30,168 or 6.7% of the people who tested positive in total are active or currently ill, CNN Philippines reports.

Of these active cases, at least 85.8% have mild symptoms, 7% have no symptoms, 4.6% are in critical condition, 2.3% are severe cases and 0.24% are moderate cases.

For the first time in decades, Mexico’s Roman Catholics have been forced to abandon what many consider the world’s largest religious pilgrimage, in which millions visit Mexico City’s Basilica of Guadalupe on 12 December.

The pilgrimage marks the day in 1531 when the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron of Latin America’s Catholics, is said to have appeared on a hillside behind the basilica.

Millions come each year, many walking or cycling for days from distant towns, the Associated Press reports.

This year, church officials agreed to close the basilica to prevent the spread of Covid-19, and offered virtual services and candle-lighting to mark the day without gathering.

Pope Francis has granted an indulgence to Roman Catholics so that they do not have to physically visit the shrine.

It was the first time the church has not welcomed huge crowds since the modern basilica was being built in the 1970s, and since religious conflict in the 1920s shuttered an older basilica nearby.

Police have erected barricades to block the entrance to the vast plaza in front of the basilica.

The faithful usually come carrying pictures of the Virgin, some advancing on their knees and many fulfilling promises they made in exchange for her help in difficult situations.

Instead, the church has set up video and internet links to watch the lighting of candles to the Virgin. The basilica is scheduled to reopen on Monday, but Mexico City is in the grips of what officials called a “coronavirus emergency,” with rapidly rising infection rates and 78% of its hospital beds full.

About 18,600 people are confirmed to have died of Covid-19 in the city.