Protesters, wearing face mask, hold signs reading 'no masks at school' and 'no masks for children' during a demonstration of unions, associations and political forces claiming more resources for healthcare in Toulouse, southern France on Nov 7, 2020. (FRED SCHEIBER / AFP)

NEW YORK / LONDON / BERLIN / SAO PAULO / CAIRO / MEXICO CITY / TBILISI / MINSK / COPENHAGEN / BUDAPEST - The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday warned in a new report of growing consequences for children as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on.

While symptoms among infected children remain mild, infections are rising and the longer-term impact on the education, nutrition and well-being of an entire generation of children and young people can be life-altering, said the report entitled "Averting a Lost COVID Generation."

Released ahead of World Children's Day, it is the first UNICEF report to comprehensively outline the dire and growing consequences for children as the pandemic lurches toward a second year.

Global tally

The number of coronavirus cases recorded across the world has surpassed 56.1 million while the global death toll has exceeded 1.35 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Pfizer-BioNTech 

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech could secure emergency US and European authorization for their COVID-19 vaccine next month after final trial results showed it had a 95 percent success rate and no serious side effects, the drugmakers said on Wednesday.

The vaccine’s efficacy was found to be consistent across different ages and ethnicities - a promising sign given the disease has disproportionately hurt the elderly and certain groups including Black people.

The US Food and Drug Administration could grant emergency-use by the middle of December, BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin told Reuters TV. Conditional approval in the European Union could be secured in the second half of December, he added.

“If all goes well I could imagine that we gain approval in the second half of December and start deliveries before Christmas, but really only if all goes positively,” he said.

The success rate of the vaccine developed by the US drugmaker and German partner BioNTech was far higher than what regulators had said would have been acceptable. Experts said it was a significant achievement in the race to end the pandemic.

Moderna

Lonza Group AG made its first commercial batch of the main ingredient in Moderna’s COVID -19 vaccine candidate in the US last week and plans to start European production by the end of the month, Chairman Albert Baehny said.

Lonza’s effort is key to ensuring a smooth rollout of Moderna’s vaccine, should the shot prove to be safe as well as effective. In contrast to pharma giant Pfizer, its closest US rival in the race for a shot, the biotech has no other marketed products and has never had to build out distribution channels for a medicine.

An illustration picture shows vials with COVID-19 Vaccine stickers attached and syringes with the logo of British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca on Nov 17, 2020. (JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)

University of Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine candidate

Results of late-stage trials of University of Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine candidate should definitely be known by Christmas, the chief investigator on the study said on Thursday, adding it was too early to know its efficacy yet. 

Asked if it was too early to say whether the vaccine, which is licensed to AstraZeneca, stops disease developing, Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said: "We haven't quite got to that point yet. We're obviously not going to rush that." 

"We're getting close, and it's definitely going to be before Christmas, based on the progress," he told BBC Radio when asked when the trial investigators would be unblinded to efficacy data and results released.

Data from mid-stage trials showed the potential AstraZeneca -Oxford vaccine produced a strong immune response in older adults, giving hope it may protect some of those most vulnerable to the disease. 

The data, reported in part last month but published in full in The Lancet medical journal on Thursday, suggest that those aged over 70 - who are at higher risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19 - could build robust immunity to the pandemic disease, researchers said. 

WHO

Lockdowns are a last-resort measure, and if mask use reached 95 percent, they wouldn’t be needed, according to Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe. He said current mask use is at 60 percent or lower.

Kluge also urged governments to keep schools open, saying closures are not an effective measure for controlling the spread of COVID-19 and that children and adolescents aren’t considered the primary drivers of transmission.

Kluge said that some health systems are being overwhelmed on the continent where more than 29,000 deaths were recorded in the past week alone.

Despite encouraging news in the last week about vaccines, they are “not a silver bullet because we know the supply will be limited particularly in the beginning”, he said.

The United States continues to see an acceleration of COVID-19 cases, reporting more than one million new infections in the past week alone, according to the Americas branch of the World Health Organization, PAHO. 

The region has reported nearly 1.5 million cases and 19,000 deaths due to COVID-19 in last week, PAHO Assistant Director Jarbas Barbosa said in a briefing. 

He said Brazil is experiencing a new increase in cases and deaths, and Uruguay has seen spikes in areas bordering Brazil.

EU

European Union leaders will today seek a common approach to lifting virus-induced lockdowns ahead of the end-of-the-year holidays, according to a diplomatic note sent to national delegations before a scheduled video summit.

Leaders will also be asked to “agree on developing a common approach on rapid antigen tests,” according to the note circulated to their sherpas and seen by Bloomberg. “This will play a key role in progressively restoring free movement of people, when circumstances allow.”

The video summit will be otherwise dominated by a debate on the deadlock surrounding the bloc’s celebrated US$2 trillion economic-recovery package, following Poland’s and Hungary’s decision to veto the deal. No resolution is expected today.

A medical staff member treats a patient suffering from coronavirus in the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center (UMMC) on Nov 10, 2020 in Houston, Texas. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

US

US deaths from the coronavirus surpassed 250,000, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The tally is the highest in the world and comes as the country is struggling with a new surge in cases from coast to coast.

New York state has the most US deaths, at more than 34,000, according to Johns Hopkins. Texas is second, followed by California and Florida.

States reported over 29,000 new infections last week in places such as nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, the steepest uptick since at least May, according to Covid Tracking Project data. 

State leaders, public-health experts and owners are sounding the loudest alarms over the spike in nursing homes and long-term care, where cases were falling until September. Visits from families traveling for the holidays also threaten to exacerbate the outbreak.

New York’s recovery from the coronavirus outbreak suffered twin blows with the announcement of citywide school closings and the warning of massive cuts to public-transit service.

Parents of hundreds of thousands of kids must find alternative child-care arrangements or adjust their work schedules by Thursday, after Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city had reached a 3 percent positivity rate that triggered a temporary halt to in-class instruction.

Germany

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 22,609 to 855,916, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday. The reported death toll rose by 251 to 13,370, the tally showed.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz defended the government’s latest measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, saying they are accepted by most of the population of Europe’s largest economy.

France

France reported 28,383 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, down from 45,522 on Tuesday and below the nearly 36,000 of last Wednesday as pressure on the hospital system continued to ease. 

Health ministry data showed that the number of people in hospital with the virus dropped by 328 to 32,842, while the number of people in intensive care with COVID-19 dropped by 79 to 4,775 over the past 24 hours.

France will not face electricity outages this winter even if the new coronavirus crisis disrupts nuclear plant maintenance, Environment Minister Barbara Pompili said on Thursday.

READ MORE: Pfizer, BioNTech plan filing as vaccine proves 95% effective

UK

Scottish police have handed the results of an initial investigation to prosecutors into whether lawmaker Margaret Ferrier broke COVID-19 rules because she made a long train journey after testing positive for the virus.

Britain recorded a further 529 deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test on Wednesday, down from 598 a day earlier, government figures showed. 

There were 19,609 people who tested positive for COVID-19 in the latest daily figures, against 20,051 on Tuesday.

Italy

Italy has registered 34,283 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Wednesday, up from 32,191 the day before. 

The ministry also reported 753 COVID 19-related deaths, up from 731 on Tuesday and the highest daily tally since April 3, when the country was in full national lockdown. 

There were 234,834 coronavirus swabs carried out in the past day, the ministry said, against a previous 208,458. 

Italy was the first Western country to be hit by the virus and has seen 47,217 COVID-19 fatalities since its outbreak emerged in February, the second highest toll in Europe after Britain's, and 1.27 million cases.

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic, one of the worst-hit countries in Europe in the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, reported 5,515 new cases for Nov. 18, Health Ministry data showed on Thursday. 

That was the highest daily tally since Nov. 13 but only a third of the peaks recorded in late October and early November. The ministry also reported 66 new deaths, which including revisions for previous days, took the total to 6,740. 

The Czech Republic has Europe's highest per capita death rate in recent weeks and one of the highest infection rates, although daily tallies of new cases have fallen in the past week after tighter lockdown measures came into place.

Russia

Russia has resumed the vaccination of new volunteers in its trial for its flagship COVID-19 Sputnik V vaccine after a short pause, staff at six of 29 trial clinics said, as Moscow moves to accelerate plans to inoculate the population.

Russia on Thursday surpassed 2 million coronavirus cases after reporting an additional 23,610 infections and 463 deaths related to COVID-19, both record daily rises. 

Russia is fifth in the number of infections reported, with 2,015,608, behind the United States, India, Brazil and France. Russia's official death toll now stands at 34,850.

Greece

The head of the Church of Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos, has tested positive for COVID-19 and is being treated with mild symptoms in a central Athens hospital, Greek media reported on Thursday. 

Ieronymos, 82, is the spiritual head of the Church in the deeply devout nation of more than 11 million which overwhelmingly identify themselves as Greek Orthodox Christians. 

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who met the prelate on Nov. 14, has twice in the past seven days tested negative for the novel coronavirus; once before his meeting with the cleric, and a second time before travelling to the United Arab Emirates, an official statement said.

Portugal 

Portugal has set up a taskforce to come up with a COVID-19 vaccination strategy and hopes to be prepared to start distributing shots as early as January, Health Minister Marta Temido said on Wednesday. 

Temido said experts were working to decide which groups should get the vaccine first as well as distribution logistics from transport to storage. 

"There's a possibility one of the first vaccines will arrive in January," Temido told reporters. "What we want is for the country to be prepared to ensure storage, distribution and safe use." 

Without elaborating, Temido said vaccines that could arrive in January were part of one of several agreements made between the European Commission and pharmaceutical companies. 

Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna and Russia have all released interim data from trials of their potential vaccines showing more than 90% efficacy, buoying hopes that effective remedies against the respiratory pandemic may be ready for use soon. 

A country of just over 10 million people, Portugal has recorded a comparatively low 246,015 coronavirus cases and 3,623 deaths but, like most European countries, infections have been rising and are putting the health system under pressure. 

A new record of 3,051 COVID-19 patients were in hospital on Wednesday, with 432 in intensive care units - more than the first wave peak of 271 in April.

ALSO READ: America locks down from Atlantic to Pacific as virus rages

Georgia

Georgia reported 3,697 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing its total to 93,092.

A total of 1,256 of the 3,697 new cases were confirmed in the capital city of Tbilisi, the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC) said.

Ukraine 

Ukraine registered a record of 13,357 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, health minister Maksym Stepanov said on Thursday, up from a previous record of 12,524 cases reported last week. 

He said the number of coronavirus related deaths had also hit a new high of 257 compared with the previous record of 256 deaths. The total number of COVID cases climbed to 583,510 with 10,369 deaths.

North Macedonia

North Macedonia's confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed 50,000 on Wednesday, reaching 50,015, after health authorities reported 1,406 cases over the last 24 hours, the country's Health Ministry said in a press release.

According to the Public Health Institute, a total of 937 patients diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, have recovered in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries in the country to 29,583.

So far, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of 1,397 people in North Macedonia, up by 21 in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, health authorities report that 19,035 cases are still active.

Health authorities have conducted a total of 300,200 tests of suspected cases since the outbreak of the pandemic.

People load bodies into a refrigerated temporary morgue trailer at the El Paso County Medical Examiner's office in Colorado. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

Canada

Canada, which has reserved enough doses to vaccinate residents against COVID-19 several times over, is in talks with other governments about a plan to donate shots to lower-income countries, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

Canada's COVID-19 cases continue to increase, with the total number hitting 310,350 as of Wednesday evening, according to CTV.

The fatalities in the country also rose, reaching 11,176 on Wednesday.

Both community transmission and outbreaks are contributing to COVID-19 spread in Canada, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada on Wednesday.

The country's national-level data indicated daily averages of 4,776 new cases and over 58,400 people being tested daily, with 6.6 percent testing positive since Nov. 6, said the agency.

Despite early successes in the pandemic, Canada faces a worsening situation until a COVID-19 vaccine is rolled out widely and needs to double down on public health measures, said Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), in an interview with CBC on Wednesday.

Brazil

Anvisa, Brazil's National Health Regulatory Agency, on Wednesday presented a new streamlined procedure for registering progress on the development of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, in a bid to speed up its availability.

According to the new rules published in the Government Gazette, the procedure is only valid for COVID-19 vaccines registered in the South American country.

Brazil recorded 34,091 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 756 deaths from COVID-19, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday. 

Brazil has registered more than 5.9 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 167,455, according to ministry data.

Argentina

Argentine President Alberto Fernandez on Wednesday said his government is devising a mass vaccination scheme against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) to be launched by the end of 2020 or first weeks of 2021.

"We are working tirelessly so that by the end of the year or the first weeks of the next, Argentina will already have a mass vaccination system in place," Fernandez said in a statement released by his office.

Argentina is working with Russia to begin vaccinating the Argentine population against COVID-19 in January and February, said Fernandez.

Starting in March, "we will be able to count on the AstraZeneca and Oxford vaccine" being developed by the British, he added.

Chile

Chile's Ministry of Health on Wednesday reported 14 more daily deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), raising the death toll to 14,897.

In the previous 24 hours, tests also detected 945 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of people who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus to 534,558.

In a statement, Minister of Health Enrique Paris stressed the high rate of testing nationwide, saying 250,370 tests have been applied per million inhabitants.

Chile is home to just over 19 million people.

Mexico

Mexico's health ministry on Wednesday reported 3,918 new confirmed coronavirus infections in the country and 502 deaths, bringing the official totals to 1,015,071 cases and 99,528 dead. 

Health officials have said the real number of cases is likely significantly higher than the official tally.

Uruguay 

Uruguay recorded 104 new coronavirus cases in a day for the first time since the pandemic began, sparking concern among government officials that the country could reverse course after a long period of successful containment. 

The South American nation of 3.5 million people has confirmed just 4,208 positive cases and 68 deaths since the pandemic began, and has a far lower daily infection rate per capita than its South American neighbors. 

The government's prompt response in March with a voluntary quarantine, widespread tracking of infections and randomized tests led some to dub it the country the New Zealand of Latin America for successfully keeping infections at bay. 

But cases are now on the rise with the new daily high of 104 cases confirmed on Tuesday.

Africa

Confirmed COVID-19 cases have surpassed 2 million across the African continent Thursday, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) dashboard. 

Confirmed COVID-19 cases have s Africa reported its first 1 million COVID-19 cases on August 7 after it reported the first case on Feb. 14 in Egypt. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa reached 2,013,388 with a death toll of 48,408 on Thursday, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

The WHO says the testing level in Africa is still very low compared to other regions.

"Most African countries are focused on testing travellers, patients or contacts, and we estimate that a significant number of cases are still missed," says WHO's regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti in late October.urpassed 2 million across the African continent Thursday, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) dashboard. 

Egypt 

Egypt registered late on Wednesday 329 new COVID-19 infections, the highest daily cases since July 31, bringing the total cases in the country to 111,613, said the Egyptian Health Ministry.

In a statement, the ministry's spokesman Khaled Megahed said 14 patients died from the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll in the country to 6,495, while 133 others completely recovered, taking the total recoveries to 101,421.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly warned at a virtual cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the second wave of the pandemic currently striking several countries globally is more widespread and dangerous than the first one.

He reiterated the importance of abiding by the preventative measures in different workplaces, urging that Egypt should avoid slipping into the risky curve.

Belarus

Belarus reported 1,382 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking its total to 119,390, according to the country's health ministry.

So far, 1,074 people have died of the disease in the country, including seven over the past 24 hours, it said.

Croatia

Croatia, one of the few European Union nations that hasn’t imposed a second lockdown in the face of the worsening pandemic, plans to tighten measures after the number of new Covid-19 infection reached a record high.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told cabinet on Thursday that the government task force will be working on a new package of restrictions. The new restrictions will focus on limiting the number of people in public gatherings, limiting opening hours of restaurants and urging more people to work from home, Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic told reporters.

Denmark

A new, mutated strain of the novel coronavirus stemming from mink farms in Denmark is “most likely” extinct, the health ministry said on Thursday, amid fears the new strain could compromise COVID-19 vaccines.

“No further cases of mink variant with cluster 5 have been detected since Sept. 15, which is why the State Serum Institute assesses that this variant has most likely become extinct,” the ministry said in a statement.

Two weeks ago, Denmark ordered all farmed mink in the country culled to curb widespread outbreaks of COVID-19 on farms, a situation exacerbated by the discovery of a mutated variant, which authorities said showed reduced sensitivity to antibodies.

Hungary

Hungary on Thursday registered 4,512 new COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour span, raising the national total to 161,461, according to official data.

In the past 24 hours, another 92 people have died from the disease, taking the death toll to 3,472 in the country, while 36,345 have recovered. Currently, 7,532 patients are being treated in hospitals, and 580 of them are on ventilators, showed figures from the government's coronavirus information website.