The "safest bet" for some families will be not to have family gatherings this Christmas in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's (WHO) technical lead for COVID-19, said on Monday.
"In some situations, the difficult decision not to have a family gathering is the safest bet," she told a virtual briefing in Geneva.
Americas
United States
The White House plans to hold an indoor holiday reception next week just days after Thanksgiving despite ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks at the compound, and against the advice of its own advisers who are urging Americans to sacrifice their normal holiday gatherings to curb the spread of the virus.
First lady Melania Trump is hosting a November 30 "holiday reception" at the White House, according to an invitation obtained by ABC News.
Millions of Americans are defying health warnings and travelling ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, likely exacerbating a surge in coronavirus infections just before a series of promising new vaccines become widely available.
With US COVID-19 infections hitting a record 168,000 per day on average, Americans are flocking to crowded airports against the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US surgeon general and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert.
"I'm asking Americans, I'm begging you: hold on a little bit longer," Surgeon General Jerome Adams told the ABC News show Good Morning America on Monday. "We want everyone to understand that these holiday celebrations can be superspreader events."
Asia
China
The WHO has had an assurance from China that an investigative field trip to find the origins of the coronavirus will be arranged as soon as possible, WHO emergency expert Mike Ryan said on Monday.
The virus was first identified in the central Chinese city of Wuhan last December, prompting US President Donald Trump to label it the "China plague" and accuse the WHO of being soft on Beijing.
Indonesia
Indonesia reached a grim milestone on Monday in surpassing more than half a million coronavirus cases, as average new daily infections hit a record and hospitals in the country's most populated province edged closer to capacity.
Indonesia now has 502,110 infections and 16,002 deaths from COVID-19, the highest numbers in Southeast Asia, having struggled to contain the spread since its first case in March.
Europe
With restrictions on family gatherings, instructions not to hug and a polite request to St Nicholas to "keep your distance", Europe is preparing for its first COVID-19 Christmas.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom reported 15,450 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total over the past seven days to 40,504, a 23 percent drop compared with the previous seven-day period.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out new measures on Monday to replace a national lockdown to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic in England on December 2, strengthening a tiered regional approach to reflect differences in infection rates.
Italy
Italy reported 630 COVID 19-related deaths on Monday, rising from 562 the day before and taking the official toll since its outbreak began in February to 50,453, according to health ministry data.
Italy, the first Western country to be hit by the epidemic, becomes the sixth nation in the world to surpass 50,000 deaths, and the second in Europe after Britain.
Medical developments
Vaccine
AstraZeneca said on Monday its COVID-19 vaccine could be as much as 90 percent effective, giving the world's fight against the global pandemic a new weapon, cheaper to make, easier to distribute and faster to scale-up than rivals.
The drug's cost to governments works out at just a few dollars a shot, a fraction of the price of shots from Pfizer and Moderna, which use a more unconventional technology.
It can also be transported and stored at normal fridge temperatures, which proponents say would make it easier to distribute, especially in poor countries, than Pfizer's, which needs to be shipped and stored at -70C.
The WHO's chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan, said the results were "encouraging and we look forward to seeing the data as we do with other promising results of recent weeks".
There is a risk that the poor and vulnerable will be trampled on in the stampede for coronavirus vaccines, the head of the WHO said on Monday, adding that US$4.3 billion was needed urgently for a world vaccine-sharing scheme.
Treatment
The top US infectious disease medical association said on Monday that Gilead Sciences antiviral drug remdesivir should be used for hospitalised COVID-19 patients despite a World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation last week against its use.
Reuters / Newshub.
