Germany's trend of new infections has taken a worrying turn, the head of its disease control agency said Thursday, as the death toll to date crossed the grim milestone of 20,000.

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The Czech government extended a state of emergency until December 23 on Thursday as the number of Covid-19 infections in the EU member started to surge again.

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine faces one final hurdle as it races to become the first shot greenlighted in the U.S.: a panel of experts who will scrutinize the company's data for any red flags.

Thursday's meeting of the Food and Drug Administration's vaccine advisory panel is likely the last step before a U.S. decision to begin shipping millions of doses of the shot, which has shown strong protection against the coronavirus.

Britain and Canada have already approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine -- will the United States be next?

An EU regulator considering the rapid approval of coronavirus vaccines said Wednesday it had been the target of a cyberattack, as Germany and other northern hemisphere countries grappled with a winter surge in the pandemic.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel would start Covid-19 vaccinations from December 27, after receiving its first batch of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine.

U.K. regulators said Wednesday that people who have a "significant history'' of allergic reactions shouldn't receive the new Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine while they investigate two adverse reactions that occurred on the first day of the country's mass vaccination program.

Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for the National Health Service in England, said health authorities were acting on a recommendation from the Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

Non-communicable diseases accounted for seven of the top 10 causes of death before the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, with heart disease killing more people than ever before.

The WHO's Global Health Estimates report found that people were living longer lives in 2019 than in 2000 -- but those extra years were not necessarily lived in good health.

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday demanded tougher curbs to bring down coronavirus infections, as the German death toll reached a grim daily record of nearly 600 people.