Coronavirus live news: Biden to ask Americans to wear masks for 100 days as global deaths pass 1.5m | World news

The US president-elect Joe Biden has told CNN that it was his “inclination” that, on his inauguration, he would ask the public to wear masks for the first 100 days of his administration to help drive down the spread of the virus.

Biden said he would issue an order for masks to be worn inside federal buildings and in transportation facilities.

The president-elect has also asked top US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci to continue in his job and serve as chief medical adviser to the new administration’s Covid-19 team after he takes office on 20 January, Biden told CNN on Thursday.

In the interview, Biden said he will get the Covid-19 vaccine when Fauci says it is safe and will take it publicly.

How is everyone’s December going?

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.

I’ll be bringing you the latest news from around the world for the next few hours. You can find me on Twitter @helenrsullivan if you have something to say about that.

More than 1.5 million people have lost their lives due to Covid-19 with one death reported every nine seconds on a weekly average, as vaccinations are set to begin in December in a handful of developed nations.

The US president-elect Joe Biden has told CNN that it was his “inclination” that, on his inauguration, he would ask the public to wear masks for the first 100 days of his administration to help drive down the spread of the virus.

• A partial lockdown will begin this weekend in the Gaza Strip after Covid-19 infections surged in the densely populated territory, Gaza’s interior ministry declared on Thursday.
• Facebook bans false claims about Covid-19 vaccines. Facebook is to begin removing false claims about Covid vaccines, the company has announced, as the UK prepares to roll out the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. It is the strongest move yet by Facebook to prevent its platform from being used to promote anti-vaccination rhetoric.
• WHO looks at possible ‘e-vaccination certificates’ for travel. The World Health Organization does not recommend countries issuing “immunity passports” for those who have recovered from Covid-19, but is looking at the prospects of deploying e-vaccination certificates.
• Italy reports record number of deaths. Italy registered 993 more coronavirus fatalities on Thursday – the highest daily toll since the beginning of the pandemic.
• UK government’s coronavirus death toll exceeds 60,000. The UK government’s official Covid death toll has exceeded 60,000 deaths, just three weeks after it reached 50,000.The official death toll now stands at 60,113, a figure which counts known deaths among those who have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus.
• Obama, Clinton and Bush pledge to take Covid vaccine on TV to show its safety. The former US presidents said they would get vaccinated for coronavirus on television to promote the safety of the vaccine, as the Food and Drug Administration prepares to meet next week to decide whether to authorise a Covid-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech.
• Conditions at Madrid and Catalan elderly care homes ‘alarming’. Conditions at elderly care homes in the Spanish regions of Madrid and Catalonia, where thousands died when the pandemic began, remain “alarming” despite improvements, Amnesty International has warned.
• Swedes’ support for anti-lockdown stance slips amid rising Covid deaths. As the national health agency announced 6,485 new infections and 33 more deaths on Thursday, a six-monthly poll by Statistics Sweden this week showed support for Löfven’s centre-left Social Democrats had dropped nearly five percentage points to 29.4% since May, amid signs Swedes are increasingly unconvinced by the country’s strategy.
• Couple face charges for boarding plane to Hawaii after positive Covid test. The couple in Hawaii are facing reckless endangerment charges after they boarded a flight with their four-year-old son even though they had tested positive for Covid-19.
• Switzerland won’t bow to foreign pressure on ski resorts, says minister. Switzerland will not bow to foreign pressure to close ski resorts over year-end holidays as some neighbours have done, health minister Alain Berset said, while warning infection rates in the nation remained “very worrying”.
• Greece extends lockdown to 14 December. Greece will extend its coronavirus lockdown by a week to 14 December, citing persistently high infection rates. An exception will be made for shops selling Christmas decorations, which can open from 7 December.