Toronto enters lockdown

Canada's biggest city entered a lockdown on Monday in the latest bid to curb coronavirus infections in Toronto, with case numbers surging across North America even as US officials said vaccinations could be available within weeks.

Encouraging results from several vaccine trials have raised hopes of a decisive shift in the battle against a disease that has claimed around 1.4 million lives worldwide in the last year.

Toronto banned private indoor gatherings and capped the size of weddings and funerals for four weeks from midnight, with officials warning hospitals risked being overwhelmed without quick action.

Officials had forecast more than 400,000 new infections a week across Canada by the end of the year without new restrictions－more than the total number of cases recorded nationwide since the start of the pandemic.

The United States could begin its own vaccination program as soon as next month, raising hopes of a looming end to the epidemic in the world's worst-hit nation.

Two leading vaccine candidates－one by Pfizer and German partner BioNTech and another by US firm Moderna－have been shown to be 90-95 percent effective in trials. Pfizer has already applied for emergency use approval from US health authorities.

Moncef Slaoui, head of the US government virus vaccine effort, estimated that 20 million people across the country could be vaccinated in December, with 30 million per month after that.

Agencies via Xinhua