December 8 coronavirus news

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that he was "feeling quite emotional" after watching 90-year-old Margaret Keenan become the first Briton outside of clinical trials to receive a Covid-19 vaccine.

Keenan, who turns 91 next week, said she felt "privileged" to be first to get the shot. "It's the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the New Year after being on my own for most of the year," she said, according to a statement released by the UK's National Health Service (NHS).

May Parsons, the nurse who administered the historic jab, said she was honored to be involved in the program. "The last few months have been tough for all of us working in the NHS, but now it feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel," she said.

The United Kingdom has become the first Western nation to begin vaccinating its citizens with a Covid-19 shot outside of clinical trials -- a landmark moment in the coronavirus pandemic.

The first Briton to get the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine -- 90-year-old Margaret Keenan -- received the first of two doses at University Hospital in Coventry, less than a week after the UK became the first country to approve it.

Staggered rollout: The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine, but only 800,000 shots will be available as part of the first wave that began on Tuesday.

The roll out will be gradual, due to the vast logistical challenges of manufacturing and distributing tens of millions of vaccines. For now, it is available by invitation only for those age 80 and over, care homes staff and frontline health and social care workers. Care home residents were also expected to be prioritized, but the government said last week this won't happen immediately.

Double dose: The vaccine requires two doses administered at least three weeks apart, so Keenan will have to go back for the second dose in three or four weeks' time. Seven to 10 days after the second dose, she should be protected against the virus.

That means the UK will have enough shots to vaccinate roughly a third of the country's population.

The country has also ordered 7 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, which could be approved for emergency use in the UK within the next few weeks.

Read the full story here.

Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has pledged over $700 billion for a stimulus package aimed at rebooting the country's coronavirus-hit economy. 

Suga announced during a meeting with his Liberal Democrat party Tuesday that the government would earmark 40 trillion yen ($384 billion) in fiscal spending and a total of 73.6 trillion yen ($707 billion) in overall investments. 

A top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official who has been largely silenced through the pandemic spoke out Monday and said she hopes her agency will be able to communicate more openly next year and regain the public’s trust.

Messonnier, the director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, has in past disease outbreaks and epidemics been front and center briefing reporters and the public about diseases and the efforts to fight them. She has barely been seen since she last briefed reporters in March.

Asked about this, Messonnier said she hoped that would change.

Many public health experts have complained that the Trump administration has sidelined the CDC and its usual role in educating the public about disease outbreaks. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to take the coronavirus pandemic response in a dramatically different direction.

The US federal government’s goal is to make coronavirus vaccines like getting a flu shot, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Monday.

“We distribute over 90 million vaccines a year that are (included in) CDC’s Vaccines for Children program,” Azar said in an interview with Axios.

Azar said the government’s Covid-19 vaccine distribution plan includes “leveraging what works using the familiar names, the Walgreens, CVS, the hospitals, the community health centers that we have.”  

Azar predicted vaccine hesitancy will decrease and confidence will increase over time.

The United Kingdom gave emergency authorization to Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine last week and will begin rolling out the shots Tuesday.

“The American people, that should bring reassurance to them. A highly separate process has also validated this and I've made clear there are five independent checks in the system that we have built to ensure there is no politicization of the vaccine program here,” Azar said.

Azar said he expects a Covid-19 vaccine to be widely available across the US by the second quarter of 2021.

“My expectation is that next year we return to normalcy in our lives, thanks to the incredible work of Operation Warp Speed and these vaccines, as well as the therapeutics,” he said.

The United States has reported at least 14,949,299 cases of coronavirus, including at least 283,703 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases. 

On Monday, Johns Hopkins reported 192,299 new cases and 1,404 additional deaths.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases. 

CNN is tracking US cases:

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Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US

Ohio State Rep. John Patterson has tested positive for coronavirus, according to a statement from his office obtained by CNN.

Patterson, a Democrat, announced his diagnosis on Monday afternoon:

According to the Ohio House website, Patterson is currently serving in his fourth term in the Ohio House of Representatives. He represents the 99th House District, which includes portions of Ashtabula and Geauga Counties.

We have heard it said multiple times: Operation Warp Speed will start moving vaccine doses within 24 hours of the Food and Drug Administration granting emergency use authorization, or EUA.

But what happens after that? 

OWS Chief of Plans, Operations and Analysis Deacon Maddox gave a clearer picture Monday of what they expect the process to look like beyond that first delivery of vaccine. 

According to Maddox, if the vaccine is approved Friday, they'll ship Saturday. The following week they will be in constant contact with Pfizer.

“I will put the number into Tiberius, and then we will allocate that, and then we'll adjust the states.” Tiberius is OWS’ IT system for tracking and allocating vaccines. 

The hope is for a constant flow of vaccine as the manufacturers push it out. To start with, Pfizer has just over 6 million doses. “That's the way that we envisioned this -- a constant flow. Every week, bank on it,” Maddox said.

Hong Kong is imposing tougher anti-epidemic measures as new cases continue to rise as part of the city's so-called fourth wave.

The government will announce a 6 p.m. dining curfew for restaurants and will close gyms, sports centers, and beauty salons, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said in a regular news briefing Tuesday.

Lam said people are not sticking to social distancing measures and the new restrictions are to "curb the number of people on the streets and reduce the flow of people."

Covid-19 infections have been rising in Hong Kong since the end of November, and the city is now reporting dozens of new cases each day. Many of those are linked to a dance club cluster, which now includes more than 650 cases. In total, Hong Kong has reported more than 6,900 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, including 112 deaths.

Lam said Tuesday that Hong Kong's new cases are at "a record high" and nearing the peak of the last wave in July. One-third of the total number of recent cases are from untraceable sources, Lam said.

The exact restrictions will be announced later, Lam said, as she appealed to members of the public to suspend all social events, parties and meal gatherings.