First doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived in hard-hit Italy, Spain and France on Saturday morning ready for distribution to elderly care facilities and hospital staff. Vaccinations in all 27 European Union countries will begin on Sunday, after regulators approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on December 21. Several countries including France, Spain, Japan, Denmark, Lebanon, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands have reported cases of the new strain, which has sent jitters through already overstretched health services. The UK itself passed 70,000 coronavirus deaths on Friday and is confronted with surging infections from the new strain. Across the world, people are being urged to respect social distancing guidelines, as the World Health Organization urged people not to "squander" the "great, heart-wrenching sacrifices" people had made to save lives.

Source: Dhaka Tribune December 26, 2020 12:22 UTC