December 28 coronavirus news

By Ben Westcott, Adam Renton, Melissa Macaya and Melissa Mahtani, CNN

Updated 12:00 a.m. ET, December 29, 2020

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11:42 p.m. ET, December 27, 2020

Trump signs coronavirus relief and government funding bill into law after lengthy delay

From CNN's Kate Bennett, Kevin Liptak and Phil Mattingly

President Donald Trump signed the massive $2.3 trillion dollar coronavirus relief and government funding bill into law Sunday night, averting a government shutdown that was set to begin on Tuesday, and extending billions of dollars in coronavirus aid to millions.

Trump's signature of the $900 billion Covid relief package extends unemployment benefits for millions of jobless gig-workers and independent contractors, as well as the long-term unemployed.

The estimated 12 million people in two key pandemic unemployment programs, who were facing their last payment this weekend, will now receive benefits for another 11 weeks. Plus, all those collecting jobless payments will receive a $300 weekly federal boost through mid-March.

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10:35 p.m. ET, December 27, 2020

Europe launches mass vaccination program as countries race to contain new variant

From CNN's Zamira Rahim and Arnaud Siad

A medical worker fills a syringe with a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at the Robert Bosch hospital in Stuttgart, Germany, on December 27. Thomas Kienzle/AFP/Getty Images

The European Union (EU) officially kicked off its Covid-19 vaccination campaign on Sunday, days after approving the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on December 21.

"The ... vaccine has been delivered to all EU countries," European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter on Saturday.

The Commission has declared December 27, 28 and 29 "EU vaccination days," which von der Leyen said were "a touching moment of unity." She added that: "Vaccination is the lasting way out of the pandemic."

The first people to receive doses of the vaccine were largely elderly or frontline medical workers.

In France a 78-year-old woman named Mauricette was the first to be given the vaccine, according to a tweet by Aurélien Rousseau, the director-general of the Ile-de-France region's health agency. Mauricette, a former housekeeper, received the vaccine at a public hospital in the greater Paris area.

Italy -- once the European epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic -- also administered its first doses of the vaccine on Sunday.

Early start: While the EU officially launched its vaccination program on Sunday, some countries had made a start on vaccinating people a day earlier -- doses were administered on Saturday in both Germany and Slovakia.

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