Bloc will buy 425m doses of treatments from Pfizer/BioNTech and CureVac; US has recorded 1m cases in past week; Russia and Japan on ‘maximum alert’ * California enacts coronavirus curfew for majority of state’s 40m residents * One death from Covid every 17 seconds in Europe * ‘Massive headache’: European leaders put off Christmas decisions * Brexit trade talks suspended after negotiator’s Covid infection * Oxford Covid scientists cast doubt on Christmas vaccine availability 7.51am GMT There are signs that the UK’s caseload curve is starting to flatten as a result of the lockdown, its health secretary MATT HANCOCK has said, paving the way for a Christmas period with less stringent restrictions. He has told Sky News: There are encouraging signs that the number of cases is starting to flatten, and that the lockdown that we brought in, earlier this month, is working. It of course won’t be like a normal Christmas, there will have to be rules in place, but we hope that they’ll allow for a bit more of that normal Christmas that people really look forward to. 7.46am GMT Greek authorities are taking over two private health clinics and their staff in northern Greece as the region’s public hospitals are under severe pressure from a surge in cases over the past few weeks, the country’s Health Ministry has said. According to the Associated Press, the ministry said it requested that beds in private hospitals be made available to the public health system, but that a “mutually acceptable solution was not possible”. Continue reading...
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