it's critical vaccines now offer hope of protection from the virus but how long will it take for the world to recover the corona virus and then the special coverage on a. us states report cases of a more contagious variant of covert 19 amid criticism that the vaccine rollout is too slow. hello i'm adrian from again this is our 0 live from joe also coming up regulators in the u.k. approved the emergency use of the oxford astra zeneca vaccine boosting hopes that poorer countries may soon get help in the fight against covert 90. 1 katrina you in one year on from the beginning of the outbreak which put this city's health

that's a simple breaking point it went on to infect millions of people around the world. and hong kong media tycoon jimmy lie back in court as prosecutors try to appeal his release on bail. us president donald trump is blaming state officials for the slow rollout of covert 19 vaccines criticism is mounting over his administration's response to the pandemic so far around 2000000 shots a been administered a far cry from the promise 20000000 by a year and it comes as a new more infectious variant of the virus has now been identified in 2 u.s. states and the gallagher begins our coverage from miami. patiently waiting for the code 19 vaccine many of florida's over 60 five's and health care workers camped overnight for their chance to receive a potentially life saving shot in the arm as the state's positivity rate hits

record highs delays conflicting information and crushing websites left facts a nation sites overwhelmed i wanted i want to see the good in people and i want to hope that people are doing their bathroom but at this point i don't know their best this is really going on right now meanwhile in the same state the president continues to go off in his mar-a lago estate telling governors to get moving his administration promised to have 20000000 people vaccinated by the end of this week doctors say without a national strategy it could take years in fourchon way without a master plan after distribution national it is going to be a lot of. and a lot of this is going to fall on state health departments and hospitals. that were already in or. more than 11000000 doses of madonna and pfizer's 2 dose vaccines have been distributed across the u.s. but according to the c.d.c. just over 2000000 of those most at risk have received it the government's health

and human services department say things will get better it's only 15 days since the 1st vaccine were given so things will evolve they were optimized over over the next week or so and you'll see you know millions and millions more vaccines the initial plan was to have 80 percent of the u.s. population vaccinated by june to reach that figure millions would have to be vaccinated every day so far that doesn't appear to be the case here in florida the positivity rate of new code 19 infection stands at more than 22 percent state health officials say that's because fewer people are being tested but with an apparent slow roll out across the nation the next few months could be worse than predicted or those most at risk can do is hope things get better and fast. gallacher al-jazeera miami florida the republican leader in the senate mitch mcconnell has rejected a bill to increase pandemic relief checks from $600.00 to $2000.00 earlier this week the house of representatives voted to increase the aid payments to demand from

president donald trump the bill needs a 2 thirds majority to pass in the senate mcconnell has attacked proposed increases outlined in the bill now to syria should have return see is in washington and explains what's behind mcconnell's thinking. it's all rather nuanced mitch mcconnell right now has 3 main priorities in the final days of the session of congress adjourns on sunday the 1st is to override president trauma's veto of the national defense authorization act the 2nd is not to jeopardize the chances of 2 incumbent republican senators who are facing a very tight runoff race next week in georgia and the 3rd priority is not to pass any bills that will give $2000.00 checks to low and middle income americans so we're seeing the 1st part of that going to go into. into action right now as we speak votes are beginning to take place on overriding the veto of the and the a.m.a. however it's a much more cumbersome process than mitch mcconnell have hoped for because the

independent senator bernie sanders stood in the way of a very easy override the veto and said look unless you bring that bill which was passed in the house on $2000.00 checks you know i'm not going to i'm going to stand in the way of the override of the vote of the n.d.a. now he can't do that forever said terry mcauliffe has a way around that and that means that he asked us to have a have a vote today and then eventually a vote perhaps on saturday which will find the override the vote in the meantime though this idea of a $2000.00 stimulus check is very popular particularly in georgia where those 2 republican senators are facing a very close race so it seems that mitch mcconnell is the come up with a plan and that is not to bring up the votes directly on that house bill giving $2000.00 stimulus checks to people but combining the $2000.00 stimulus checks with 2 other issues that are very close to president trump's heart forming a commission to look into alleged electoral fraud in the presidential election and

ending legal protections for social media companies he's going to combine those into one bill and have a vote that seems to be the plan that's what he was talking about earlier today. health regulators in the u.k. of approved a vaccine developed by oxford university and astra zeneca the pharmaceutical giant has pledged to make $1300000000.00 doses available at cost to low and middle income countries it comes as the u.k. recorded its highest daily death toll since the 1st wave in april from tng further restrictions were a challenge reports from london. if ever good news was needed in the u.k. it's now the numbers of new infections and hospitalizations are breaking records the deaths are almost as numerous as the peak in april and medics are sounding alarms that the health service is struggling to cope with cope with 2nd wave q a much anticipated announcement from the u.k.'s medicines regulator this vaccine kovac 19 vaccine astra zeneca has been approved for use in people 18 years and

older with 2 standard doses $4.00 to $12.00 weeks apart rollout begins on january the 4th with the oxford astra zeneca vaccine joining that of pfizer biotech and use in the u.k. since early december both are effective but the new vaccine has numerous advantages . there this london vaccination center you can see some of the infrastructure that is needed to administer pfizer by on take vaccine you can hear the generators running people need to be kept warm and the vaccine needs to be kept secret chilled the oxford astra zeneca one day you can be given out by any doctor or nurse where the bridge is much easier and that means many more people can be vaccinated boster the government is prioritizing getting the 1st dose to his many people as possible it's 70 percent effective the 2nd dose one to 3 months later makes that immunity last longer 100000000 doses on the order add that to the 30000000 doses of pfizer

and that's enough for 2 doses for the entire population if the government can achieve this it believes the country can return to normal life in the spring but before that announcement that millions more britons are moving into higher regional tears of coronavirus restrictions and there's a delay to the new school term for many people's or pupils in exams to return during the week beginning the 11th of january with secondary school and college students returning full time on the 18th of january. during the 1st week of term after the 4th of january secondary schools and colleges prepare to test as many students as possible. the oxford astra zeneca vaccine is welcome news for the u.k. but things are almost certain to get worse before they get better. now to 0. china has given conditional approval for the use of its 1st coronavirus vaccine

developed by the state company the vaccine is said to be more than 79 percent effective china is aiming to inoculate 50000000 people with it by mid february let's go live now to han in china katrina you. tell us more about this vaccine approval katrina. will china had 5 vaccines in stage 3 or final stage trials this year inside a fund is the 1st about seem to be officially approved by china's regulator the fund of funds says its vaccine has an efficacy rate as you mentioned of 79 percent which is lower than the wise a vaccine which is at the rates of about 95 percent but it was enough to send it back to you which is about 70 percent 70 percent of that you know the funny thing was tested in about 10 countries around the world including how do jordan and egypt and sign

a form says that there was no serious adverse effect on any of the recipients but also nearly 1000000 people in china have already received to sign up on that team under the government's emergency use program now we're still awaiting details to see how this vaccine like be rolled out to the chinese public we do know that essential service workers for example will be among those 1st to receive it the chinese government has said it wants $50000000.00 people in china to be vaccinated by chinese new year that's before the big travel event happens at the beginning of february and it's also promised to many countries around the world in a bid to improve it. global image. been a year now since the 1st known coronavirus case is in how is that city coping. from the outbreak. that's right one year on and around me we're in downtown d.c. area in the city you can see people are working their shopping normal life seems to

have resumed and this is very much the image the chinese government wants to portray to the rest of the world success in controlling this outbreak hasn't been a new case here in particular about 7 months but we are learning more about private 19 and how it affected the city now the chinese government says $90000.00 people in china were infected by the current virus in total about $5000.00 died and most of those people weren't on the bus according to a recent study by time the center for disease control the may beat many more people who were infected it says up to 4 percent of ruhani population had antibodies in their system that is to say that up to half a 1000000 people may have been exposed to the corona virus now the chinese government responded to that study yes they go thursday saying that it's not conclusive it's based on quite a limited sample size and it doesn't mean that the figures are inaccurate but it definitely has added to the official figures now when you talk to people here who are many of them have moved on they're quite proud of how the government has

handled it but there will also many people who aren't very happy at all they say they blame the government for the outbreak say the government was not transparent especially in those early days and some of those relatives of those who died from covert going to you know quite angry demanding an apology and justice. 12 months ago john high spot checked into hospital to receive treatment for a broken leg. while he was there the 76 year old caught a fever and died he was one of the 1st victims of a mysterious disease which would later be named curve in $1000.00. before my father died he said songs are i don't want to die can you ask the doctors to say for me those were his last words junk high is now suing the chinese government he says local officials withheld information about the corridor virus outbreak allowing it to spread. war isn't merely a mistake it was

a crime murder none of their relatives died only the ordinary people died was because they knew how bad the virus was they protected themselves but they were supposed to care for older citizens as the new morny alike disease to call it across was in january a mass banquet celebrating chinese new year went ahead regardless just over a year ago one on one with a place locals to buy arrested for ends meet today it's shut down completely then stop and believed by many to be the starting point of the endemic we've lost the world and in that millions of. china has not suffered as badly as other countries since the outbreak according to official figures about 90000 people have been infected and 5000 have died for almost 3 months millions of people to put on

district locked out and able to leave their apartments. joe was one of them but the business owner says life has now turned to gold. so. the chinese government did the right thing they saved us there was no other way look at what's happening in western countries now it's scary it's a fear. the world health organization team will arrive in behind next month to investigate the origin of the outbreak beijing was reportedly initially reluctant to provide access when it comes to the crowd of ours china's leaders appear to be doing all they can to control the narrative this week citizen journalist junk john was sentenced to 4 years in jail for. locked up charged with picking and provoking trouble. junk is still mourning the death of his father he says he's been intimidated by local authorities and called a traitor for his complaints against the government. i will

never shut up even if i'm the only one left shouting johnnie's people say truth is always in the hands of the few if i don't speak up and hold. the ball. one year on he won't be silenced and will never forget. al-jazeera one. will in a special program on thursday al-jazeera will be looking at the devastation caused by covert 19 in the year since the virus emerged as vaccines offer hope of protection will be asking how long it could take for the world to recover that's an 800 hours g.m.t. here on al-jazeera. we're going to weather update next here on al-jazeera then. an attack kills at least 26 people at 8 an air force where members of the gammons new government just arrived from saudi arabia. and will take

a look at the cost of thailand's oneness of success in battling a coronavirus threat. nothing too dramatic is happening in lebanon strapped middle east there is cloud iran's a bit of a circulation it's windy at least on the i think video and east of coming out of iraq and in towards jordan but this cloud here sick enough to use one or 2 showers will make it disappear for some is fight for sherry for a couple of days in mecca could be sundry i don't think we're in flash flood terror should be never can tell in this part of the world and that cloud spreads east was making that same potential for a few showers in bahrain possibly qatar but again nothing much from it generally speaking it's quiet and typical for this time of the year. we should catch up on

what's happening in mozambique this cloud here is she made landfall in the morning in mozambique now these words potentials are saying winds reported around about the 70 to 80 mark there was briefly a big target 3 meter potential here and the rainfall not particularly heavy as reported so far but the potential is between one and 200 millimeters it's moving inland it will reach zimbabwe jury wednesday again dispensing rain everywhere pull away or gets it for wednesday and thursday and possibly friday but the winds are particularly strong. for. an invitation to bear witness to all that life office. the highs the learners the trials and tribulations. and feelings and everything miracles the injustice nice little finds

the cast of characters and the cast not take 2 weeks witness documentaries with a delicate touch on al-jazeera. hello again this is out of there let's remind you of the main news this hour u.s. president donald trump is defending his administration's rollout of covert 19 vaccines blaming states for the slower than promised distributional it comes as a more infectious variant of the virus has now been identified in colorado and california. health regulators in the u.k.

of approved the vaccine developed by oxford university and astra zeneca more than 15000 infections were recorded that for a 2nd day and millions more people are moving into the toughest tier restrictions. china has given conditional approval for the use of its 1st coronavirus vaccine developed by the state's own pharmaceutical company the site of fund vaccine is said to be more than 79 percent effect. hong kong's top court is set to decide on whether media mogul jimmy lives bail will be revoked lie high profile pro-democracy activist is facing charges under new security laws he was released on bail last week prosecutors are arguing that the pro-democracy activists should be put back in prison not daily as a human rights lawyer he joins us now live via skype from hong kong what are we to make of the fact that this is being decided by hong kong's highest court it's a bail case. i don't think there's i don't think that the problematic i mean i

think the issue it's obviously attracted a lot of attention because it's the 1st time hong kong's highest court will be deciding anything relating to the national security law and so all be bail in this case i think it's that the fact that to this new some would say draconian law. that the highest court is going to be deciding and one of the key. issues that we look at is that to the state media yesterday or the day before it was critical of the lower court decision to release mr on bail so. that's a concern because that seems to be interfering with the judicial independence in hong kong so it puts extra pressure on our highest court in many ways what happens if the highest court doesn't find favor with beijing and decides that the lower

courts who were right that the jimmy jimmy i should be out on bail. yeah let that that's the big concern i mean by way of context if we look at to how this law came to be it was you know the basic law hong kong's many constitution is supposed to ringfence hong kong's common law and develop the legal system from the mainland system so i think that's an important point to note and unfortunately the national security law has been imposed it's a mainland law imposed now on hong kong which which breaks that barrier that we've had to you know what have hong kong's legal system ring fenced so one of the issues is that to inter all timid interpretation is given to the national the n.p.c.s. see the national people's congress standing committee and that if that's going to be used if if the n.p.c.s.

he doesn't like our highest court rules again that's going to be a huge erosion of hong kong's independent legal system so this as you say is a big test of the independence of hong kong's judiciary yeah i mean any of the any of these cases involving national security now will be will be a big test for hong kong system. and there you know it's a it's a mainland law you put there is determines that or not. you know common law lawyers the they're not familiar with many of these terms there's vague terms that to infringe on freedom of expression we would say. national security itself is not defined colluding with foreign forces is not defined not defined so there's a lack of precedent how this came to be was not transparent. so and the national

security office itself in hong kong is not amenable to judicial review so un experts have said they're very critical of the law itself so we're so we're already in territory that to that we would have never expected hong kong to be in good to talk to him out but he thinks data being this month daily that live in hong kong thank you. in yemen local media is reporting saudi led airstrikes on the capital sanaa said to be targeting kooky positions in the sez he it comes. 6 people were killed in a blast at the airport in aden attack happened shortly after members of yemen's newly inaugurated unity government returned from saudi arabia. reports. waving at supporters as they climbed off their flight aetate an apple at members of yemen's new unity government returned days after being sworn into office at

a ceremony in saudi arabia. but the hopes of rebuilding the country after more than 6 years of civil war turned into chaos a devastating attack on agency international airport and the work of more than a year of saudi breakup talks and a deal signed in 2019 now in question the government members were led to safety but analysts say the authority of the new administration has been undermined this is of additional residence that the challenges are very serious the challenges are enormous. that unity government will have to deal with serious challenges on the ground. no matter what no matter who stands behind this explosion i think there is a huge security breach has happened yemen's new prime minister moved quickly to try and restore confidence you're both with the people this attack gives the government the responsibility to put an end to the quick to and to restore the country and the

state again the government an addon will go on continue its job supported by the people of yemen we will never let our people down the terrorists never defeat our people we will be victorious we will accept nothing but victory. sides government was formed as a compromise between you a backed separatist in the southern transitional council of aden and saudi backed loyalists of president abu reprimand so hardy in riyadh the 2 camps for to each other after separatists declared a state of emergency and self government in aden and surrounding southern provinces but together they aim to launch a knighthood front against iran backed huth iraq was in yemen's capital sana'a who deny they were behind the attack but the bloodshed at the airport is likely to put any hopes of peace in yemen back a long way. out to syria. at least 28 people were killed when their bus was attacked in syria it happened near

a village on the outskirts of delos or province they were reportedly on their way to join the new year celebrations the pin the claims of responsibility. uganda's musician turned presidential candidate bobby why and says that he's been allowed to return home after being arrested for the 3rd time in 2 months wine was detained along with his team while campaigning in the central region of cullen gullah police dismissed the reports of the arrests officers used tear gas against his supporters in cullen gullah they accuse whine of holding rallies in violation of coronavirus rules the presidential election is due to be held next month. a high profile human rights lawyer has been released on bail nicholas support you is an outspoken critic of the ugandan government he was taken into custody last week on money laundering charges something that he denies. thailand was looking like one of the success stories of 2020 despite being the 1st country outside china to detect covert 19

infections it had remarkably low infection rates and fewer than $100.00 for solid fatalities a large new year celebration of the land in bangkok but a recent surge in of factions threatens to raise all of this year's games tony chang reports from bangkok to many thais when they imagine hell this is what they see gruesome torture carried out by monstrous devils and demons this mccard theme parks a representation of a buddhist hell a reminder to those that visit the wages of sin it's a popular destination for visitors to the seaside town of bank. a few 100 meters away paradise long sandy beaches swaying palms and a gentle sea but this year the beach is almost empty as it has been for much of the past 9 months thailand closed its borders when the coronavirus struck and impose

strict quarantine conditions that are still in place that's kept transmission rates low and fatalities in double figures a huge success but it's come at a great cost the tourism authority says 2020 arrivals were down 80 percent of the choices letting people in of the cost of rising infection rates 2021 when get any better if we are talking about the way how to choose to receive and the other way we have to maintain. 19 situation of course we choose a 2nd choice as a 1st we have to make local people tape people stay safe. and it's not just tourism that suffered a strong coronavirus response that closed off thailand also limited export markets the economy contract it sharply with government aid slow and inconsistent many people had to rely on food handouts just to make ends meet uncle nick hosts one of

thailand's most popular online phone in shows. all year he's been counseling callers with financial problems health scares and isolation and desire to. always avoid seeing what i feel that people are losing hope depression or despair they really don't know what to do with themselves so will the new year bring in the rest by a few weeks ago thousands of people were expected here in downtown bangkok to mark the arrival of 2021 but a sudden rise in covert infections has meant those celebrations have been cancelled and the government's now advising people to stay at home. and if those transmission rates continue to rise all the hard work and sacrifice of this year could be lost tony ching al-jazeera bangkok new york's times square a speaking final preparations for new year's eve the iconic crystal ball had its

final test run on wednesday tens of thousands of people normally join the celebration but it's been scaled down this year due to the pandemic a limited group of 1st responders has been invited to watch the event in person. you know you see less people here in times square we're going to have more hope than ever because we cannot wait for 2021 the light is at the end of the tunnel and we are we are filled with out them. it is good to have you with us holloway 3 i'm sitting here in doha the headlines on al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump is defending his administration's rollout of the covert 19 vaccine blaming states for the slower than promised distribution.