People over 75, front-line essential workers should get vaccine next, CDC panel says

Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced Wednesday that he will be the first in the country to be immunized against COVID-19 and that the vaccine, once approved, will be available at no cost to all citizens.

"I want to emphasize once again that I will become the first one to be vaccinated. This is to build trust and certain among the public that the vaccines are safe," he said in an address from the presidential palace that was livestreamed on YouTube. "I've ordered the finance minister to prioritize and reallocate to provide free vaccines, so there's no reason that the people can't access them."

Earlier this month, Indonesia received 1.2 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech. The vaccine, called CoronaVac, is still awaiting approval from Indonesia's food and drug agency, according to Widodo.

Indonesia, which has the fourth-largest population in the world, has reported more than 636,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, including at least 19,248 deaths, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

Vaccinations began Wednesday for staff at New York City’s public hospitals, beginning with Elmhurst Hospital in Queens.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who attended the inaugural moment, commended the Elmhurst Hospital “health care heroes” who "held the line" when the hospital faced “one of the toughest battles” against COVID-19 in the U.S.

“In the last 48 hours since the vaccine arrived, over 1,600 health care workers have been vaccinated in New York City -- that is a huge step forward,” the mayor said.

Elmhurst plans to vaccinate its entire hospital staff within three weeks.

The World Health Organization has warned that "there is a high risk of further resurgence" in COVID-19 infections across Europe at the start of the new year.

"Despite some fragile progress, COVID-19 transmission across the European Region remains widespread and intense," the WHO Regional Office for Europe said in a statement Wednesday. "There is a high risk of further resurgence in the first weeks and months of 2021, and we will need to work together if we are to succeed in preventing it."

The warning comes amid the festive season when families are anxious to gather together for the winter holidays.

"Annually across Europe, we see a massive increase in gatherings that bring together people of all ages, including families, religious groups and friends," the regional office said. "This brings a significant risk of increased COVID-19 transmission during the upcoming holiday season."

The regional office is urging everyone in Europe to "play our part to prevent yet another resurgence" by postponing or reducing the size of gatherings and holding them outside if possible, wearing masks, maintaining physical distancing and avoiding any transportation that might be crowded.

The regions of the Americas and Europe continue to shoulder the burden of the coronavirus pandemic, accounting for 85% of new cases and 86% of new deaths globally, according to the WHO's weekly epidemiological update published Tuesday.

China's aviation authority announced Wednesday it will suspend inbound international flight routes if five or more people on board test positive for COVID-19 upon arrival.

The airline will be banned from operating that flight route for up to two weeks if five or more passengers are found to be infected with the virus after landing in China. The suspension period extends to four weeks if 10 or more passengers test positive, according to a statement from China's Civil Aviation Administration.

Airlines will be allowed to resume one flight per week on that route once the suspension ends.

The previous rule was a one-week ban if five or more passengers on an inbound international flight tested positive for COVID-19.

The move comes one day after China's Civil Aviation Administration issued one-week suspensions to inbound flights operated by Ethiopian Airlines, Russia's Pegas Fly and Swiss International Air Lines after five or more passengers on each of those flights tested positive for COVID-19.

The first known human cases of COVID-19 were identified in Wuhan, China, last December. The virus soon spread to every single continent around the world, except Antartica. Since the start of the pandemic, the Chinese mainland has reported more than 86,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including at least 4,634 deaths, according to the latest data from China's National Health Commission.