AP roundup: U.S. official expects quick vaccine distribution, International developments

WASHINGTON — Gen. Gustave Perna of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine program says about 40 million doses could be ready for distribution in the U.S. quickly if the Food and Drug Administration authorizes emergency use.

He told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Friday that states would decide, with guidance from the FDA and the CDC, who will first get the vaccine.

Pfizer is asking the FDA to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, starting a process that could bring the first shots as early as next month. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech offered preliminary data to suggest its vaccine appears 95% protective.

Perna says the “states are going to tell us exactly where they want it to be...and as soon as they figure out their distribution plan across their states, we will ensure that the vaccine gets there in a timely manner.” ...

HONOLULU — Anyone flying to Hawaii will be required to have a negative COVID-19 test result prior to their departure for the state, with the new rule going into effect two days before Thanksgiving, Gov. David Ige announced Thursday.

Until now, passengers flying to the islands using a pre-travel testing program were permitted to arrive and then upload their negative test results to a state database, allowing them to skip two weeks of quarantine.

LISBON, Portugal -- Portugal’s parliament has voted by a comfortable margin to extend the country’s state of emergency by two weeks amid the new coronavirus pandemic.

The state of emergency has allowed the government to impose nighttime and weekend curfews across most of the country.

Officials are expected to further tighten restrictions on movements in areas of high contagion. Health experts say they expect the recent resurgence of COVID-19 to peak next week.

Portugal’s 14-day cumulative number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 of population is 769 — higher than neighboring Spain and close to France and Italy, according to the European Centre for Disease Control. ...

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Authorities in Sri Lanka have announced that they will suspend all passenger trains for two days as COVID-19 cases surge in the capital Colombo and its suburbs.

General Manager of Sri Lankan Railways Dilantha Fernando said trains will not run on Saturday and Sunday.

The authorities have locked down many parts of the capital and its suburbs since last month when the virus resurged. ...

HONG KONG — Hong Kong has suspended in-person classes for lower primary school students after the city’s top health official said the coronavirus situation in the territory was rapidly deteriorating. ..

Hong Kong is due to launch an air travel bubble with Singapore on Sunday. Currently, the plan remains on track, although it could be suspended according to the agreement between Singapore and Hong Kong if the seven-day moving average for untraceable coronavirus infections exceeds five in either city.

STOCKHOLM — Skansen, Stockholm’s popular open-air museum, and its traditional Christmas market with food, yule decorations and people singing and dancing around a Christmas tree, will be closed this year for the first time in its 129-year history because of corona restrictions.

“This is to take responsibility in accordance with the new guidelines where all persons are encouraged to take responsibility and not meet more than eight people,” Skansen head John Brattmyhr said in a statement.

Last week, Sweden set its strictest virus restrictions to date by banning public gatherings of more than eight people to curb a record number of infections in recent weeks that are burdening the healthcare system. The Scandinavian country had opted to keep large sections of society open. Its controversial strategy in fighting COVID-19 has so far relied mainly on recommendations to the population to maintain social distance. ...

Sweden has reported 201,055 cases and 6,340 deaths.

BEIJING — Authorities in China’s northern city of Tianjin have sealed off a hospital, a residential compound and a kindergarten after the city found four new local cases of the coronavirus Friday.

Three of the confirmed cases were a set of parents and their son. The fourth was an individual who worked in the same residential compound. On Tuesday, the city had found a COVID-19 case in the same residential compound, bringing the total to five confirmed cases. China does not count asymptomatic patients as confirmed cases. ...

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s prime minister has urged the public to avoid social gatherings and stay at home as much as possible as the country registered more than 300 new virus cases for a third consecutive day.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Friday the 363 cases reported in the past 24 hours took the country’s total to 30,017 with 501 deaths since the pandemic began.

South Korea’s caseload has been on a steady rise after it relaxed its physical distancing rules last month. ...