What happened last week? Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccine rollout widened, China targeted Jack Ma’s Alibaba, and the UK border with Europe closed.

  • Date: 26-Dec-2020
  • Source: Business Insider
  • Sector:Economy
  • Country:Middle East
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What happened last week? Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccine rollout widened, China targeted Jack Ma’s Alibaba, and the UK border with Europe closed.

A medical worker inside an intensive care unit on December 22.







Yara Nardi/Reuters













What happened last week?

By late Wednesday, the US hit a milestone: 1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in 10 days. 

This week brought further scrutiny of Alibaba and Ant Group leader Jack Ma, both inside and outside China.

After being closed for days, the border between the UK and EU reopened. Of 2,637 drivers who had been tested by midday Thursday, only three tests came back positive, the UK secretary of transportation said on Twitter.

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What happened last week?

The COVID-19 pandemic didn't slow down for the holiday week. Instead, it accelerated around the US, and the world. By midweek, almost 79 million cases were reported worldwide, with about 18.5 million in the US, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Los Angeles Country remained the US epicenter, although daily new cases in the state slipped to about 40,000, down from a record of 63,817 new cases on December 16. 

Only 1.1% of beds were available at California's intensive care units, Gov. Gavin Newsom