Summary for Friday, 20th November
- People aged 50-64 in England are being offered free flu jabs from 1 December as part of an expanded winter vaccine scheme
- Just half of close contacts given to England's NHS Test and Trace are being reached in some areas, a BBC investigation has found
- Millions of public sector workers in England face a pay freeze after a huge rise in spending to fight the pandemic
- More than two million people in Scotland are preparing to move to the country's toughest level of coronavirus restrictions
- Northern Ireland is set to face a two-week period of tougher lockdown measures from next Friday
- A "tough" six months lies ahead for Europe, the World Health Organization has warned
- Mexico has recorded more than 100,000 Covid deaths - the fourth country to pass the sombre milestone
- The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told Americans to avoid travel for the Thanksgiving holiday amid soaring Covid-19 cases
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Here’s a quick summary of the main stories in the UK:
- People aged 50-64 in England are being offered free flu jabs from 1 December, as part of an expanded winter vaccine scheme to tackle the "twin threats" of flu and Covid-19
- Just half of close contacts given to England's NHS Test and Trace are being reached in some areas, a BBC investigation has found
- Millions of public sector workers face a pay freeze in next week's Spending Review , as the Treasury tries to bolster public finances after a huge rise in spending to fight the pandemic
- UK government borrowing was £22.3bn in October - the highest figure for that month since records began in 1993
- More than two million people in Scotland are preparing to move to the country's toughest level of coronavirus restrictions
- And Northern Ireland is set to face a two-week period of tougher lockdown measures from next Friday
What’s the latest from around the world?
As the total number of cases around the globe approaches 57 million, here's a reminder of the top international stories:- Mexico has become the fourth country to pass 100,000 deaths in the pandemic, following the US, Brazil and India. With a population of around 125 million, Mexico has one of the highest coronavirus mortality rates
- The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has called on Americans to avoid travel for Thanksgiving , after one million new cases were recorded in the past week
- The World Health Organization has warned that Europe, which has once again become the epicentre of the pandemic, faces a “tough” six months
- South Australia entered a state-wide lockdown after learning a man with Covid-19 had lied about his link to a pizza shop , police say. The strict six-day lockdown began on Wednesday after the state detected 36 infections – the first locally acquired cases since April
- YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have said they will join forces with fact-checkers, governments and researchers to try to come up with a new way of tackling vaccine conspiracy theories and misinformation
What's the latest across Europe?
The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, has died in hospital, weeks after leading a large public funeral for Montenegro's most senior cleric, who also died of Covid-19. The patriarch was 90. Thousands of mourners attended the 2 November funeral without masks or practising social distancing. You can read more on that here.There's concern in Greece too, where the head of the Church of Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos, has been admitted to hospital with mild Covid symptoms. Ieronymos, 80, has backed the government's strict Covid rules. But a 62-year-old Greek bishop who insisted on maintaining communion ceremonies despite the pandemic was buried this week.
The EU may conditionally authorise the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in the second half of December, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as long as it gets the go-ahead from the EU medicines agency.
Germany's daily infection rate has hit a new record 23,648 cases in 24 hours. The transmission or reproduction rate is estimated at just below one, so for every 100 people infected, another 99 people are catching the virus.
Amazon in France has agreed to postpone its Black Friday promotion by a week to early December, under a proposal by Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire. Non-essential shops are pushing to reopen at the end of next week.
Bars and restaurants in Sweden will tonight have to stop serving alcohol from 22:00 (21:00 GMT). And Sweden's Royal Academy of Sciences is now calling for a rethink on the decision not to recommend wearing face masks - it says they should be worn in public indoors.
Parts of Scotland brace for toughest restrictions
More than two million people in Scotland are preparing to move to the country's toughest level of coronavirus restrictions.The level four rules will come into force at 18:00 GMT in 11 council areas, including Glasgow.
Non-essential shops will close, as will pubs, restaurants, hairdressers, gyms and visitor attractions - but schools will remain open.
The restrictions will remain in place until 11 December.
Read more here.
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