November 9 coronavirus news

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has called his company's Covid-19 vaccine candidate "the greatest medical advance in the last 100 years.” 

Pfizer announced earlier on Monday that the vaccine is more than 90% effective according to early data.

"Emotions are very high," Bourla told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

The drugmaker has no safety concerns so far, Bourla added.

He added that the vaccine will be available free to all American citizens.

The CEO said Pfizer planned to have more than 1 billion doses available globally next year.

Around 10 million doses of the vaccine are to be manufactured and made available to the United Kingdom by the end of 2020 if approved by regulators, a Downing Street spokesperson said Monday.

According to the spokesperson, the UK has procured 40 million doses of the Pfizer candidate vaccine in total.

Bourla did tell CNN that it was unclear how long protection from the vaccine could last.

When asked if the timing of the announcement was related to the US election, Bourla said: "The science brought it exactly at this time. We announced it the moment we learned about it, and I said multiple times the election for us is an artificial timeline."

US President-elect Joe Biden congratulated the scientists behind the vaccine in a statement Monday and thanked "the brilliant women and men who helped produce this breakthrough and to give us such cause for hope."

US President Donald Trump also reacted on Twitter, writing: "STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON. REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SUCH GREAT NEWS!"

Shanghai health authorities have detected a new locally transmitted Covid-19 case in the city's Pudong district, officials said Monday.

A 50-year-old man who worked as a Pudong airport porter cycled to a local hospital on Sunday and reported symptoms. 

On Monday, the man's positive result was confirmed and he was transferred to the city's Public Health Clinical Center for isolation and treatment, health officials said. 

The man had no contact with anybody infected with the virus and had not visited any "medium- and high-risk areas" in China in the last 14 days.

Twenty-six of the man's close contacts have been tested, and 23 tests have returned as negative, health officials said.

Shanghai's Zhuqiao County is now marked as a medium-risk area and residents are advised not to leave the city. Those who need to leave will be required to submit a negative nucleic acid test certificate received in the last seven days. 

The risk levels of other areas in Shanghai remain unchanged.

One hundred and eighty people related to close contacts are being transferred or are already in isolation facilities.

Shanghai has recorded 1,254 cases in total, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Drugmaker Pfizer has said its coronavirus vaccine is more than 90% effective according to an early look at data -- a much better than expected efficacy if the trend continues.

A so-called interim analysis from the company examined the first 94 confirmed cases of Covid-19 among the more than 43,000 volunteers who received either two doses of the vaccine or a placebo.

The analysis found fewer than 10% of infections were in participants who had been given the vaccine. More than 90% of the cases were in people who had been given a placebo. 

Pfizer said that the vaccine provided protection seven days after the second vaccine dose and 28 days after the initial dose.

The company's final goal is to reach 164 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection.

In a press release, the pharmaceutical giant said it plans to seek emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) soon after volunteers have been monitored for two months after getting their second dose of vaccine, as requested by the FDA. 

Pfizer said it anticipated reaching that point by the third week of November. Its vaccine trial is conducted in partnership with German company BioNTech.

The Phase 3 vaccine trial has enrolled 43,538 participants since July 27. As of Sunday, 38,955 of the volunteers have received a second dose of the vaccine. The company says 42% of international trial sites and 30% of US trial sites involve volunteers of racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds. 

 Pfizer's study will also evaluate whether the vaccine protects people against severe Covid-19 disease and whether the vaccine can provide long-term protection against Covid-19 disease, even in patients who have been infected before.

The US FDA has said it would expect at least 50% efficacy from any coronavirus vaccine.

BioNTech's shares rose sharply after the news.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen reports:

European countries are rolling out increasingly strict coronavirus restrictions as the continent's second wave continues.

In Hungary, the government has proposed a series of tougher lockdown measures, in an effort to curb the spread of cases.

The new measures -- which will come into force as of midnight on Tuesday, pending parliamentary approval -- will include the closure of restaurants, universities and leisure facilities.

A curfew will also be imposed on all citizens from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. local time, unless they are considered exempt for work. 

While Orban has said that all gatherings will be prohibited under the proposals, up to ten people will be permitted to participate in family gatherings, while a limit of 50 people will be placed on funerals.

In Italy, where a nationwide curfew is already in place, the association of doctors has called for a national lockdown.

Meanwhile in France, a second nationwide lockdown has resulted in the country’s economic activity being 12% lower than normal in November, the governor of the Banque de France said Monday.

The governor added that he expects economic activity will be down between 9% and 10% in 2020. 

Under the second national lockdown non-essential businesses in France such as bars and restaurants are closed.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel struck a more positive note Monday, when she congratulated US President-elect Joe Biden.

And in Russia, the coronavirus response center said Monday that 21,798 new cases of coronavirus had been reported in 24 hours. That total is Russia's highest daily tally since the pandemic began.

Iran has once again marked a record high day of Covid-19 cases, reporting 10,463 infections on Monday according to the country's Health Ministry.

Iran recorded 458 deaths on Monday, bringing the total death toll to 38,749, according to governmental statistics. 

On Sunday, the country recorded 459 deaths, the highest tally since the outbreak began in February.

Iran is the worst hit country in the Middle East with a total number of 692,949 cases.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last month that the country was suffering through a third wave of the pandemic.

At least 237,570 people have died in the US from coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU.)

The US is nearing a landmark tally of 10 million reported cases.

At least 9,968,155 cases have been reported so far -- the highest tally worldwide according to JHU.

On Saturday, the country marked yet another record high of infections -- 128,412​ cases (the highest day total since the pandemic began).

Sunday also marked the fifth consecutive day of new coronavirus cases totaling more than 100,000.

CNN is tracking the spread of Covid-19 across the US here:

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Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US

Even with President Donald Trump still refusing to concede the election, President-elect Joe Biden is launching an aggressive plan today to control the pandemic that is escalating at an alarming rate and will define his administration as soon as he takes office.

Biden's announcement of a coronavirus task force is an acknowledgment of record new infection numbers in recent days that mean that the Covid-19 crisis will be far worse by the time he reaches the Oval Office in January. The initiative is a forceful statement of intent and makes clear that Biden will use an active transition period to mobilise against the staggering health and economic challenges he will face. And it indicates that he is already moving ahead with the business of assuming power after celebrating the achievement of his three-decades long quest for the presidency on Saturday.

Biden's steps to set the tone of his administration come despite the unprecedented spectacle of a President who has lost the election declining to accept reality. Sources tell CNN that Trump campaign aides are considering their own aggressive strategy  -- not to finally tackle the virus that has killed more than 237,000 Americans -- but for the US President to possibly hold rallies to bolster his false claims that his second term has been stolen.

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Analysis: Trump in denial over election defeat as Biden gears up to fight Covid

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have unveiled the group of public health experts that will make up their coronavirus advisory board.

The team is chaired by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who served in the Obama administration and also includes Rick Bright, a whistleblower from the Trump administration who alleged that his early warnings about the pandemic were ignored.

Bright was the former director of the office involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine. He said his early warnings about critical supplies shortages were met with skepticism from Trump administration officials.

The inclusion of Bright on the board signals Biden's attempt to take the US' Covid-19 strategy in a different direction to President Trump who has regularly downplayed the impact of the virus.

Both Biden and Harris will receive a briefing from the advisory board on Monday afternoon.

The announcement comes as the US nears 10 million reported coronavirus cases.

The Italian association of doctors and surgeons has called for a national lockdown as the country grapples with an increase in Covid-19 cases, hospital admissions and intensive care unit (ICU) patients.

If the trend continues, Italy will record another 10,000 more deaths in a month’s time, the association’s president Filippo Anelli said on Sunday, warning that last week's data "does not make us foresee anything good". 

Italy is already under a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. nationwide curfew, with bars and restaurants closing at 6 p.m., while certain areas face harsher restrictions.

Residents in "red zone" regions -- Lombardy, Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta and Calabria -- may only leave home for necessities, health or work. Those in "orange zones" are banned from leaving their towns except for work or health reasons.

Italy registered 32,616 new daily Covid-19 cases and 331 related deaths on Sunday, according to data from the country's Health Ministry.