November 19, Thursday, 2020 (1:30 p.m.) Newsline

Japanese officials confirmed more than 2,300 cases across the country on Thursday—a new daily record—and the continuation of a worrying trend. The daily count first crossed the 2,000 threshold on Wednesday. But numbers have now climbed higher—even before all of the prefectural tallies are logged.
U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer looks set to apply for emergency authorization of its vaccine candidate, which it says was found to be 95 percent effective against the coronavirus. Pfizer is developing the experimental drug together with Germany’s BioNTech.
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden says that the Trump administration’s failure to recognize his victory is delaying his transition team’s efforts to draw up a coronavirus response plan. “There’s a whole lot of things that we just don’t have available to us, which unless it’s made available soon we’re going to be behind by weeks or months,” Biden said.

INTRODUCTION