EU backs second COVID-19 vaccine

The European Union's drug regulator cleared a second coronavirus vaccine for use on Wednesday, bringing relief to European countries struggling with spiraling infections as the world clocked up a record number of deaths in a single day.

The Moderna vaccine is now set to join Pfizer-BioNTech's jab for use in the 27-nation European Union, where governments have been criticized for slow rollouts of the doses already available.

"We'll have more than enough safe and effective vaccines for protecting all Europeans," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The European Commission has ordered 160 million Moderna shots, enough to vaccinate 80 million people. Moderna said in a statement it will start the European rollout next week, after a limited start in the United States last month with nearly 20 million doses.

The approval came as a record 15,769 COVID-19 deaths around the world were registered in 24 hours.

The US, the world's worst-hit country, logged a record 3,936 deaths and the United Kingdom posted its own record of more than 1,000 new deaths, leapfrogging Italy to become the fifth-worst affected nation in the world.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday that it had reports of at least 29 people developing severe allergic reactions to the coronavirus vaccines, but it stressed that the risk for most people is low.

The CDC released its latest count of side effects suffered by more than 5.3 million people who have been vaccinated. The 29 had suffered anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction that can be controlled through an epinephrine injection.

Surge in Mexico

Mexico also saw one of the biggest daily rises in coronavirus cases and COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, as gatherings during the Christmas period likely fueled a surge in infections.

The Mexican Health Ministry reported 13,345 new confirmed cases and 1,165 deaths on Wednesday. That brought the country's total number of infections to 1,479,835 and its overall death toll to 129,987.

Ricardo Cortes, a health official, said the fresh surge was likely linked to Mexicans attending Christmas celebrations, adding the virus is more likely to spread when many people meet in closed spaces without ventilation.

"We're starting to see a reflection of what we lived in the past weeks,"Cortes said during a news conference.

As COVID-19 continued to take its toll in the UK, regulators in London are considering a requirement for international arrivals to have a negative test in the 72 hours before traveling to the country.

The measure is among several being considered to "prevent the spread of COVID-19 across the UK border", a statement by the Department for Transport said.

The discussions come after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a third national lockdown in England to prevent hospitals being overwhelmed.

The new travel rules would apply to those arriving by plane, ferry and train but UK nationals and those who live there will be exempt. It is thought that haulage drivers coming through ports would also be exempt.

The number of global coronavirus infections had topped 87 million with over 1.88 million deaths by Thursday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Agencies and Jonathan Powell in London contributed to this story.