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A highly contagious coronavirus variant first detected in the UK could become the dominant strain in the US by March, health officials have said. Clinicians care for a Covid-19 patient in a California hospital's isolation area Photo: GETTY via AFP The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned of "rapid growth" of the variant in coming weeks. It said such a spike could further threaten health systems already strained by a winter Covid surge. The warning came on Friday (local time) as President-elect Joe Biden unveiled an ambitious plan to ramp up vaccinations. To meet his target of inoculating 100 million Americans within his first 100 days in office, Biden said his administration would take a more active role in stepping up the distribution of vaccines. He outlined a plan to set up new mass vaccination centres, hire extra health workers, and ensure the shot is available to everyone, including minority communities that have been hit hardest by the epidemic. Official data shows that, so far, 12.2 million vaccine doses have been administered in the US - a figure Biden has criticised as insufficient. More than 30 million doses have been distributed to states. In a speech, Biden told Americans that "we remain in a very dark winter", admitting that "things will get worse before they get better". "This is going to be one of the most challenging operational efforts ever undertaken by our country," Biden, who takes office on 20 January, said of the vaccination drive. His address came a day after he announced a $US1.9trillion ($NZ2.7tn) stimulus package for the battered US economy that included a further $US20billion ($NZ28bn) for the vaccine roll-out. The plan will need to pass Congress. Joe Biden wants 100 million Americans vaccinated within his first 100 days in office Photo: AFP The US has recorded the highest number of confirmed coronavirus infections - 23.5 million - of any country in the world. At about 391,000, the country's coronavirus deaths account for a fifth of the global total, which passed the two-million mark on Friday (local time). The crisis is particularly acute in the state of California, where deaths have surged by more than 1000 percent since November. In its report, the CDC said that the UK variant would spread quickly in the coming weeks. The latest research by Public Health England (PHE) suggests the variant - now dominant in much of Britain - is between 30 percent and 50 percent more transmissible than previous strains. There is currently no evidence to suggest it causes any more serious illness. Experts have also played down the possibility that the current vaccines will not be as effective against it. So far, 76 people from 10 US states have been confirmed to have been infected with the UK variant, known as B.1.1.7. But the CDC said: "The modelled trajectory of this variant in the US exhibits rapid growth in early 2021, becoming the predominant variant in March." Two other variants - one from South Africa and one from Brazil - are also thought to be more contagious than the original one that started the pandemic. Studies are under way to assess the threat they pose. - BBC

A worker installs razor wire on top of fencing surrounding the US Capitol in Washington. Photo: 2021 Getty Images Presidential inaugurations are always tightly secure events with operations led by the US Secret Service, but this year's measures have been ramped up after Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on 6 January in a bid to prevent the final certification of Biden's victory. Law enforcement officials have warned of threats and armed groups in all 50 states. More than 31,000 security personnel from the National Guard and law enforcement agencies will protect Washington. Much of the city's core has been restricted or locked down ahead of the event, normally a day of public festivities and private balls. Most of these were already canceled by the Covid-19 pandemic. While there will be a scaled back parade, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser has urged the city's 684,000 residents to stay home, AirBnb has cancelled local reservations and local businesses and monuments are shutting. The National Park Service said on Friday it was immediately closing the National Mall and other landmarks in Washington to visitors through until at least 21 January. The Mall includes landmarks like the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. The area around the White House has also been closed, as has a key bridge over the Potomac River that connects Virginia to Washington, as well as East and West Potomac Parks, including Hains Point, which are near the Mall. "We cannot allow a recurrence of the chaos and illegal activity that the United States and the world witnessed last week," Matthew Miller, the head of the Secret Service's Washington field office, told reporters. A member of the National Guard on patrol near the US Capitol. Photo: AFP Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, told CNN that Biden's team had decided to delay the inauguration rehearsal by one day due to "some of the online chatter talks about Sunday the 17th". Still, Biden's chief of staff Ron Klain said in an interview with the Washington Post he was confident that law enforcement officials would be able to secure the inauguration. More National Guard troops US officials said they expect the number of National Guard troops to rise to 25,000 in Washington DC, a number that could increase even further. In downtown DC, Metropolitan AME Church, a historic Black church that has hosted historical Black luminaries like educator Booker T Washington and journalist Ida B Wells, said it has security plans in place but declined to provide details. "We recognise that some people may be emboldened to focus on communities which have always prioritised justice, so we are cautious of that," a church official said. Even before the 6 January siege, the inauguration was expected to be significantly different from the previous swearing-in of presidents due to coronavirus concerns. Many of the events that accompany the ceremony will be virtual. "This is not a concession to the terrorists. It is a recognition of the danger of Covid," US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters. Members of the National Guard pose for photographers before being deployed in Washington. Photo: 2021 Getty Images Mayor Bowser suggested to reporters that, due to the storming of the Capitol by groups of "white extremists," heightened security measures in the district could remain in effect until well after Inauguration Day. "We are going to go back to a new normal," Bowser said. "We certainly have to think about a new posture in the city. So while we are focused on January the 20th, we are also focused on January the 21st and every day thereafter in the nation's capital." - Reuters

Some EU countries are receiving much fewer Covid-19 Pfizer vaccine doses than expected, after the US firm slowed shipments. A French pharmacist holds a vial of the undiluted Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, stored at -70 °, on 15 January, 2021. Photo: AFP Six nations called the situation "unacceptable", and warned that it "decreases the credibility of the vaccination process". Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia urged the EU to apply pressure to Pfizer-BioNTech. Pfizer said the reduced deliveries are a temporary issue. In a statement yesterday, the drugmaker said shipments were being affected by changes to its manufacturing processes that are designed to boost production. "Although this will temporarily impact shipments in late January to early February, it will provide a significant increase in doses available for patients in late February and March," Pfizer said. The EU has also approved a vaccine manufactured by US company Moderna for use, so the bloc is not wholly reliant on the jab developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. Still, the development is expected to slow the pace of vaccination programmes. The German health ministry called Pfizer's announcement surprising and regrettable, noting it had committed to binding delivery dates until mid-February. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she'd been assured by Pfizer's chief executive that all orders guaranteed for delivery in the first quarter of the year would arrive. Last week, von der Leyen said Pfizer had agreed to supply the EU with 600 million doses this year, double its initial order. Hungarian doctor Zsuzsanna Varnai is given a dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. Photo: AFP The pledge may do little to soothe European governments battling to subdue a fast-spreading Covid-19 variant first detected in the UK. About a third of the 27 EU governments reported having "insufficient" vaccine doses, at a meeting this week, Reuters reported, citing a participant. Lithuania said it would now get only half as many Pfizer vaccine doses as promised, until mid-February. Belgium said it expected to receive about half the planned doses in January. Canada is also affected, because its vaccine supplies come from a Pfizer factory in Belgium. Norway, which is not an EU member, said on Friday that Pfizer was temporarily reducing the number of vaccine doses delivered to the country as of next week. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health said in a statement that it could supplement the loss using "emergency stock"; "The stock we now have will be able to compensate for a reduction in the planned deliveries for a few weeks ahead," it said. Which other vaccines is the EU buying? As well as Pfizer-BioNTech, the European Commission has reached agreements with five other pharmaceutical companies to purchase hundreds of millions of vaccines, once they pass clinical trials: AstraZeneca: 400 million doses Sanofi-GSK: 300 million doses Johnson & Johnson: 400 million doses CureVac: 405 million doses Moderna: 160 million doses The Commission concluded initial talks with another company, Novavax, for up to 200 million doses. Elsewhere in the world, Turkey said it had vaccinated half a million people in two days with vaccines developed by China's Sinovac Biotech. The figures suggest Turkey vaccinated more people on the first day of its rollout than France did in almost three weeks. In the US, President-elect Joe Biden unveiled a US$1.9tn (NZ$2.66tn) stimulus plan for the coronavirus-sapped US economy on Thursday night. If passed by Congress, it would include $1tn for households, with direct payments of $1,400 (almost NZ$2000) to all Americans. -BBC