Here's your evening update on the latest coronavirus news:

As of Monday evening, there are over 72.6 million coronavirus cases and over 1.6 million deaths worldwide from the virus. The US has over 16.4 million cases and over 300,000 deaths. Currently there are over 109,000 people hospitalized in the US, up 1,000 from yesterday. The first shots were given in the American mass vaccination campaign on Monday, opening a new chapter in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday advised clinicians to reassure their patients of the safety of Covid-19 vaccines. New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo warned that the state could be subject to sweeping shutdowns if hospitalizations continued to increase. Amid rising cases in the Netherlands, Prime Minister Mark Rutte ordered non-essential businesses to close for the next five weeks. Singapore on Monday became the first Asian country to approve a coronavirus vaccine made by the American drug maker Pfizer. The rest of today's important coronavirus news is below. And if you haven't yet, you can get alerts on our vaccine distribution tracker.

• Crede Bailey, the director of the White House security office who was hospitalized for months with the coronavirus, had his foot and the lower part of one of his legs amputated as he battled the infection, a friend of his wrote on a GoFundMe page dedicated to his medical bills.
• In stimulus news, bipartisan lawmakers put together a proposal today to try to get a new bill passed by this Friday, by splitting up the bill into two parts - the part everyone agrees on, and the contentious parts.
• The number of people with the coronavirus in the United States who have died passed 300,000 on Monday, another wrenching record that comes less than four weeks after the nation’s virus deaths reached a quarter-million.
• Shortly after 9 a.m., the new Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was administered in Queens, the first known inoculation since the vaccine was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration late last week. It was a hopeful step for New York State, which the virus has scarred profoundly, leaving more than 35,000 people dead and severely weakening the economy.
• For Dr. Patricia Winokur, receiving the vaccine on Monday was in part thanks to her own work. She is a principal investigator on a clinical trial of the Pfizer vaccine, which is the first being rolled out across the United States. “This is the culmination of a lot of hard work,” she said while tearing up. The trial that Dr. Winokur, 61, helped run started in July and ran through October at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, with 270 volunteers. Some had tested positive for the coronavirus, but others had not; they received the vaccine to study the body’s response.
• Japan is also struggling with an uptick in coronavirus cases and will hit pause on a nationwide campaign to encourage travel and tourism.
• Officials in South Korea have ordered schools in the Seoul metropolitan area to move all classes online starting Tuesday until at least the end of the year.

As of Saturday evening, there are over 69.3 million coronavirus cases and over 1.5 million deaths worldwide from the virus. The US has over 16 million cases and over 296,000 deaths. Currently there are over 108,000 people hospitalized in the US, up 1,000 from yesterday.

It's here. 10 months after the first case was detected in the US, the Covid-19 vaccine is likely to be injected into the first person in the US on Monday. UPS and FedEx are splitting the distribution of the Pfizer drug, which was given FDA emergency use authorization last night. We have covered the distribution and timeline in today's blog post, which includes the FedEx and UPS route networks to their hubs and then to 600+ vaccination sites in all states and territories by Wednesday.

Yesterday there were over 200,000 new cases again and nearly 3,000 deaths. Up to 300,000 cases have been traced to a Boston Biogen conference in February. The rest of today's important coronavirus news is below.

• At a news conference on Saturday, Gen. Gustave F. Perna, the chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, the federal effort to bring a vaccine to market, said that boxes were being packed at Pfizer’s plant in Kalamazoo, Mich., and would be shipped to UPS and FedEx distribution hubs, where they would be dispersed to 636 locations across the country. Pfizer said shipping would start early Sunday morning. Mr. Perna specified that 145 sites would receive the vaccine on Monday, 425 on Tuesday and 66 on Wednesday. Read the full details here.
• An independent committee of experts advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday afternoon recommended the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for people 16 years of age and older. That endorsement, which now only awaits final approval by Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the C.D.C., is a key signal to hospitals and individual health care providers that they should proceed to inoculate patients.
• The emergency authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Friday night has set off a frenzy of preparations at hospitals and doctors’ offices across the United States. Among them is Northwell Health, the largest health care provider in the New York region, once the coronavirus epicenter in the United States.
• With the F.D.A.’s authorization of a coronavirus vaccine on Friday, the United States became the third highly developed Western country — after Britain and Canada — to approve such a drug.
• Charley Pride, who was celebrated as a country music’s first Black superstar and known for hits such as “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’” and “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone,” died on Saturday at age 86 while in hospice care in Dallas. The cause of his death was complications of Covid-19, said Jeremy Westby, the singer’s publicist.
• A coronavirus outbreak at a veterans’ home in Illinois has killed more than a quarter of its residents, prompting the state to mobilize the Illinois National Guard to the home, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at a news conference on Thursday.
• Los Angeles County could see “catastrophic suffering and death” in the coming weeks, public health officials warn, as the nation’s most populous county reported another record day of new coronavirus cases. The 13,737 cases reported on Friday bring the county’s total to more than 500,000, as the county and California struggle to contain an explosion. California officials reported 37,124 cases on Friday, the highest one-day total of the pandemic.

As of Thursday evening, there are over 69.3 million coronavirus cases and over 1.5 million deaths worldwide from the virus. The US has over 15.5 million cases and over 291,000 deaths. Currently there are over 107,000 people hospitalized in the US, up 3,000 from yesterday. The biggest news of the day is that the FDA's advisory panel gave the green light for the Pfizer vaccine. It's expected the FDA will follow with official approval within days and shots could start for healthcare workers and nursing home residents next week. We covered this news and the tentative distribution plan in today's post. In somber news, yesterday had the highest US death toll due to Covid-19 with over 3,000. States are beginning to shut down further and enforce stay-at-home orders. For example, Pennsylvania announced today a ban on indoor dining and closure of gyms, theaters, and casinos for three weeks. Unemployment claims rose sharply last week as the economic crisis grinds on. The rest of today's important news is below.

• The New Hampshire State Legislature was already fiercely divided over the coronavirus when the new Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Richard Hinch, died suddenly on Wednesday. Then came the news on Thursday that the cause of his death was Covid-19.
• “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” has paused filming after its host said on Thursday that she had tested positive for the coronavirus. “Fortunately, I’m feeling fine right now,’’ Ms. DeGeneres wrote in a statement she posted to Twitter. Ms. DeGeneres said that anyone who had been in close contact with her had been notified, and that she was following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Applications for jobless benefits resumed their upward march last week as the worsening pandemic continued to take a toll on the economy. More than 947,000 workers filed new claims for state unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was up nearly 229,000 from the week before, reversing a one-week dip that many economists attributed to the Thanksgiving holiday. Applications have now risen three times in the last four weeks, and are up nearly a quarter-million since the first week of November.
• The European Medicines Agency, the European Union’s top drug regulator, whose approval is necessary for countries in the bloc to begin rolling out the coronavirus vaccine, has begun an investigation after it was hit by a cyberattack, it said on Wednesday.
• Months before anyone knew which of the coronavirus vaccine candidates would pull ahead or when they’d be available, airlines were trying to figure out how to transport doses around the world. Over the summer, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines spoke with government officials, pharmaceutical companies and experts to understand where vaccines might be produced, how they would be shipped and how best to position people and planes to get them moving. More recently, they have flown batches of vaccines for use in trials and research or to prepare for wider distribution.
• An 83-year-old passenger who initially tested positive for the coronavirus on a “cruise to nowhere” from Singapore this week, forcing thousands of passengers and crew members to return to port a day early, did not have the virus after all, officials said on Thursday.
• In Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam announced a new executive order that imposes a nightly curfew, but it was unclear how — and how vigorously — it would be enforced. The order lists categories of activity that will still be permitted during the curfew, including obtaining food, goods or services; seeking medical or law enforcement help; taking care of people or animals; child care; exercise; traveling to work, school or a house of worship; volunteering for charity; and leaving home to seek safety.

Wednesday's December 9 Update

As of Wednesday evening, there are over 68.6 million coronavirus cases and over 1.5 million deaths worldwide from the virus. The US has over 15.3 million cases and over 288,000 deaths. Currently there are over 104,000 people hospitalized in the US, up 2,000 from yesterday. Canada approves the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech, and shots may begin next week. Pennsylvania's governor, Tom Wolf, says he has tested positive for coronavirus. Moderate lawmakers struggle to finalize a bipartisan stimulus deal as leaders remain at odds, but there is still hope for the $908 billion package. In the big news, data shows ICU beds are nearing capacity across the US (map below). This new dataset, published Monday, marks the first time the federal government has published detailed geographic information on Covid-19 patients in hospitals. In Germany, Angela Merkel calls for stricter lockdowns. The rest of today's important coronavirus news is below.

• Canada has approved the coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech, its drug regulator said on Wednesday, opening the possibility that Canadians will start receiving it next week.
• Thousands of Britons received the first clinically authorized, fully tested coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday, with people reporting minimal side effects. But two health workers with a history of serious allergies had reactions after being given the vaccine, British drug regulators said on Wednesday. As they investigate what precisely caused the reactions, the regulators warned that people prone to severe allergic reactions should not receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the time being.
• A bipartisan group of moderate lawmakers circulated details about their $908 billion stimulus compromise but was still struggling to reach agreement on crucial details, as congressional leaders remained at odds on an economic relief plan to address the pandemic.
• The United Arab Emirates approved a Chinese coronavirus vaccine on Wednesday, citing preliminary data showing that it was 86 percent effective. The move, the first full approval of a Chinese vaccine by any nation including China, could bring the vaccine a step closer to widespread use around the world.
• With the coronavirus re-emerging in New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo began holding his popular news briefings virtually on Wednesday, rather than in person with reporters in the same room. The shift, months after the virus first devastated the state, will put Mr. Cuomo in sync with other leaders who transitioned away from in-person briefings long ago, including Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.
• After getting blowback from parents and local officials, California has reversed course, and will now allow public playgrounds to remain open under the state’s stay-at-home orders. In an update on Wednesday, the California Department of Public Health said that “playgrounds may remain open to facilitate physically distanced personal health and wellness through outdoor exercise.”
• The analysis, published in Nature Communications on Wednesday, examined more than 3 million Covid-19 cases in dozens of countries and most American states. While the researchers found no differences in the proportion of male and female patients infected with the virus, men were nearly three times as likely to be admitted to intensive care than women, and 40 percent more likely to die.