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| - Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis: Europe becomes the first region to surpass 500,000 deaths from Covid-19, according to an AFP tally of official figures at 1500 GMT on Thursday. Europe has registered 500,069 deaths from more than 23 million cases. It comes ahead of Latin America and the Caribbean on 477,404, the United States and Canada (321,287), Asia (208,149), the Middle East (85,895) and Africa (57,423). The coronavirus has killed at least 1.65 million people and more than 74 million cases have been diagnosed since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to the AFP count. French President Emmanuel Macron becomes the latest world leader to test positive for Covid-19 and goes into isolation for a week. A list of leaders who have had contact with him also go into isolation, including EU chief Charles Michel, and the prime ministers of Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain and Macron's own prime minister Jean Castex. The EU is to start Covid-19 inoculations on December 27, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says. The rollout is conditional on the European Medicines Agency authorising the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine when it meets on Monday. The watchdog also says it had brought forward the date for a decision on authorising Moderna's coronavirus vaccine by nearly a week to January 6. US experts meet to decide whether to recommend approval of Moderna's vaccine, potentially paving the way for a second vaccine early next week. The US Food and Drug Administration says it is working with Pfizer to revise a fact sheet for recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine after two people had allergic reactions. US lawmakers inch closer to a new stimulus package to help the pandemic-battered economy, as new applications for US jobless benefits increase for the fourth week out of five. Germany sees record daily virus infections of over 30,000. It says it will issue up to 471 billion euros ($576 billion) worth of bonds in 2021, another record, to help Europe's biggest economy get through the pandemic. Poland decides a three-week partial lockdown from December 28 with shopping centres and ski slopes closed as well as a travel restriction on New Year's Eve. Bulgaria, which faces some of the highest infection and death rates in Europe, decides to keep restaurants, cafes, shopping malls and secondary schools shut until end-January. President Vladimir Putin, whose country has the one of the world's highest caseloads, says that Russia has managed the pandemic "maybe even better than other countries in the world". He announces he will be vaccinated with Russia's Sputnik V virus jab. Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf says the country has "failed" to save lives during the pandemic, a rare comment from the monarch who does not usually speak publicly on political issues. burs/jmy/jxb
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