seaven there's no money at all the rest of rich countries are fighting for an inside story on al-jazeera. think. china approves its 1st corona virus vaccine and plans to inoculate $50000000.00 people within the next month. and i'm picturing you in ruhani one year on from the outbreak that brought this city's health care system to breaking point and went on to infect millions of people around the world. i learned this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up. this is not a political issue this is not an individual rights issue this is a public health issue the united states' top coronavirus expert tells our desire

that there will be more suffering and death unless people wear masks and continue to social distance. in the u.k. 20000000 more people are set to start 2021 under tightened coronavirus restrictions . and many people around the world will be glad to close a door in 2020 just got midnight in thailand these are live pictures from bangkok where eco friendly fire works made of rice are being used to usher in india. so the country that 1st attempt to create a virus one year ago has just approved its 1st locally made vaccine for public use china has given a state backed sign of farm the green light to produce a vaccine it says is 79 percent effective life and we hung over 90 was 1st reported has now largely returned to normal round the world other vaccines are beginning to

be rolled out but in the united states the hardest hit country there's criticism that it's just taking too long some 2000000 shots have been given well short of the 20000000 promised by now a new variant of corona virus from the u.k. has led to a surge in infections across several countries south africa south korea the czech republic are the latest to report record daily numbers of infections and china has just confirmed its 1st case carried by a woman who arrived in shanghai from britain 2 weeks ago around the globe millions of people remain under lockdown italy in the united kingdom are among those observing strict virus prevention measures. well the 1st known corona virus infections are thought to have been linked to a seafood market in the city of where the virus is large contained now in china those who lost loved ones are still angry about the government's handling of the pandemic katrina you reports from. 12 months ago tongue high spot they checked into a 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 the mysterious disease which would later be named $1001.00 is. before my father died he said son i don't want to die can you ask the doctors to say from a those were his last words junk is now suing the chinese government he says local officials withheld information about the current virus outbreak allowing it to spread. of course one war isn't merely a mistake it was a crime murder none of their relatives died only the ordinary people died why because they knew how bad the virus was they protected themselves but they were supposed to care for all their citizens. as the new morning a like disease too cold across one 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 and meet today it's shut down completely then stop and believed by many to be the starting point of the pandemic that's what we asked the world and in that millions of people. 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 that put a district locked out and able to leave their apartments. joe was one of them but the business owner says life has now returned to normal. vision with a silver the very time that 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 hot 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 a portion of the law had locked up charged with picking quarrels and provoking trouble. junk high is still mourning the death of his father he says he's been intimidated by local authorities and called a traitor to his complaints against the government or group or somewhere you go. i will never shut up even if i'm the only one left shouting chinese people say truth is always in the hands of the few if i don't speak up and hold those responsible accountable how can i live one year on he would be silenced and will never forget katrina you al-jazeera one. is president donald trump is blaming state officials

for the slow rollout of code 90 vaccines criticism is mounting over his administration's response to them and it comes as a new more infectious strain of the virus has been identified in 2 u.s. states and they've got a has more now from miami. patiently waiting for the code 19 vaccine many of florida's over 60 five's in health care workers camped overnight for their chance to receive a potentially lifesaving shot in the arm as the state's positivity rate hits record highs delays conflicting information and crushing websites left fax anation sites overwhelmed i want to 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 fortune way without a master plan after distribution national it is going to be a lot of. and a lot of this is going to state health departments and hospitals and doctors that were already in. 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 and gallacher al-jazeera miami florida. u.s. senate leader mitch mcconnell has blocked a bill that would drastically increase the amount given out in pandemic relief checks earlier this week the house of representatives voted to increase the aid payments from 600 to 2000 dollars that followed a demand from president donald trump the bill need to teach thirds majority to pass in the senate the senate is not going to split apart the 3 issues that president trump linked together just because democrats are afraid to address 2 of them so that it's not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of democrat rich and she don't need. that in fissures in washington d.c. with more on the corona virus outbreak that. the united states yesterday saw

a record number of hospitalisations highest number since the previous record was set on december 17th the experts say this is the spike that's coming from thanksgiving we warned about it and it's arriving and it's going to continue for a number of weeks here is the added problem there's going to be a spike from christmas as well we're hearing from the transport administration here in the united states that more than 1000000 people traveled by air over the last 4 days highest number in months and they think that added to the new year spike this is going to be a problem that's going to continue all the way in to 2021 and of course the day that joe biden takes over on top of that we know have more than 3200 deaths it's a record number 5th of those happening in california and also in texas what is interesting is in california they phoned another case of the variant disease you'll remember that one was phoned in colorado just a couple of days ago here

a 2nd case has been phoned in california what is warning the authorities there is that this person again had no travel history hadn't been out of the country and travel much in the states so this is clearly an issue that is there now officials from the administration say that the vaccination is going to get better there is a lag everything has got to be geared up and to the folks who said the same thing a couple of days ago but with 2100000 people vaccinated although there was a promise of 20000000 by the end of today you can see there's a massive shortfall and it's going to take some time to catch up with the united states top infectious disease expert dr anthony felt she was told that coronavirus prevention measures are not a political issue nor an individual rights issue in an interview with the bottom line who steve clemons he says it's simply about public health. the issue is that science has been very successful in doing something that was unheard of or

unimaginable years ago is to go from the identification of a new pathogen in this case this mysterious virus that just broke the harness and then we identified it in the anywhere e of this here in less than an 11 month it actually now is going into someone's on into a lot of people's arms and it has been proven to be highly efficacious and say that is a very successful coup de force of science my concern is that there is a lingering anti science feeling in this country that is sort of mixed in with an anti vaccine feeling that we've got to overcome by being transparent about what we've done and what we want to do with science the ikeda's place another 20000000 people in england into the toughest here frustrations including the major cities of manchester and birmingham the health secretary says the mutated and more infectious

strain of corona virus has spread to most of england and the number of hospital admissions has gone past level seen during the peak of the outbreak in april with more than 51000 on wednesday and a record of over 53000 on tuesday for a challenge of this update from london. wednesday had some good news didn't it with the announcement the oxford astra zeneca vaccine is being cleared for use in the u.k. and it will be rolled out from january the 4th thursday there was a case of do you want the bad news or the worst news 20000000 more people in england started the day in here for they join 24000000 people already living under the toughest level of coronavirus restrictions now that is 3 quarters of the english population hospitals in london and the southeast the saying that there i see use intensive care units operating at more than 100 percent capacity this one is the royal london hospital in recent days it's been in the eye

of the storm with ambulances of patients queuing up outside the emergency wards it begs the question why aren't the nightingale hospitals being used properly now these were the emergency field hospital set up all around the country at the peak of the 1st wave by and large they have stood empty now the government says they're being ready ready for use as backups but i've just been down to the london one and had a look inside and was told that it's been temporarily closed and that most or some of the equipment at least. moved out the government's position is that it would prefer code patients to be treated in proper hospitals like this one and not in the emergency field hospitals as well equipped as they may be but the sounds of the calls that are coming out from front line and staff is that things are getting dire and something soon has got to give. still ahead here in al-jazeera the deal is

approved the clock is ticking in just a few hours the u.k. for me leaves the e.u. single market. thailand strong response against coronavirus was applauded what success came to green calls. it is generally quiet weather wise from turkey down to yemen but in the middle of saudi arabia in particular there's a swirl of clouds is producing light showers nothing much is coming out of the air however the might be a shower to light where they are and for the 1st 2 days of 2021 in daraa there's not much of a breeze anywhere to be honest so whether we're in changed markedly it's still quite modern the western side of turkey 15 in istanbul has been given a bit of a false bring feel now what's happened to show well this is what's happened she's

gone inland have been going to cross mozambique as a fairly strong storm and is still producing windy and wet weather and will soon says stay in zimbabwe and then move into botswana i don't see it like a small heart but it still could produce some pretty nasty stormy weather and it keeps going towards the maybe about time it gets we get to friday joining up with what is a fairly active seasonal trough that's big showers and that's true for a good part of central and southern africa and it continues giving a wet start to the year in namibia for example in fact you would expect maybe much rain wind hook but it is the start of what is effectively the wet season sustenance on the monday all looks very sherry but cool. in december 2019 the 1st coronavirus case was reported in china within months

a local outbreak became a global pandemic one year on week sam and the devastation caused by covert 90. with more than a 1000000 fatalities and economies crippled vaccines now offer hope of protection from the virus but how long will it take for the world to recover the coronavirus undemocratic special coverage on a. i don't get you watch al-jazeera remind of our top stories this hour the covert 1000 vaccine made by the chinese pharmaceutical company sign of 5 has been given conditional approval 12 months after the virus which detected in the company says

the vaccine is round 79 percent effective. the u.k. place another 20000000 people in england into the toughest here of restrictions including the major cities of manchester and birmingham the health secretary says it mutated and more infectious strain of current viruses spread to most of in the. united states top infectious diseases expert says it could gain some control over the pandemic by late next year dr anthony felt she told an online discussion panel that some semblance of normality would return if enough americans fight. well more than 4 years after the u.k. voted to leave the european union by a small majority breaks it will finally come into full effect at $23.00 g.m.t. ahead of that british politicians overwhelmingly approved a trade deal with the e.u. in a special session of the house the agreement sets out new trade and security regulations still needs to be ratified on the european side which has been approved to take effect later when the transition period ends for brennan is at the port of dave are

in southern england to witness firsthand how cross channel trade is affected. becomes a practical reality at 11 pm u.k. time tonight it's of places like here the port of dover where its impacts will be most acutely felt 2 and a half 1000000 vehicles use this port on an annual basis you can see them going past me now around 135000000000 dollars worth of trade crossing the english channel and delays can mount up exactly a week ago i was standing on this very spot just after the europeans had imposed coronavirus checks on any holy as wanting to cross the road that is behind this lorry we'll see it in a 2nd that road there was absolutely gridlocked with traffic lorries vans unable to cross totally stuck because the port of dover had to shut now of course you can see it's open before holi as wanting to get across there is now extra paperwork extra bureaucracy a run through some of it for example the new u.k.

license will replace the e.u. community license the c.m.t. permits will not only be issued on a monthly basis rather than previous annual basis there will be a need to register your trailer you'll need to carry the vehicle logbook and registration and you may need multiple green card insurance tickets both for the cab and for the trailer in addition to the drivers will have to go to an airfield 20 miles to the north of here to have a coronavirus test before they can even access here now what will happen tonight at 2040 g.m.t. that will be the last sailing of the evening before they recalibrate the systems on the 1st ferry out on january the 1st will be at $750.00 so there will be a small pause but that is when the new teething problems as the road haulage association expects will start to bite. a deal has been arranged to secure freedom of movement on the border between spain and gibraltar avoiding a so-called heartbreaks it for its residents british territory wasn't included in

the new u.k. e.u. trade deal but its government and spain have reached a last minute interim agreement there were fears of a lack of a deal that could have caused disruption including for those who work across the border from that. murali is a former aide to the u.k. sector of state for ex thing the european union is all they both sides have managed to avoid gibraltar sovereignty issue this time the dispute will resurface again in the future. i think there will be a big sigh of relief from gibraltar this is a country or region the vote 96 percent to remain in the european union around 50 percent of their workforce come in from space so i think ensuring fluidity of the border between the 2 is important i think the practicalities mean the gibraltar will remain plot all shaken and all the benefits that brings with it that's freedom of movement freedom of goods and i think that's vital to the gibraltar economy and

the whole ecosystem that i mean i think it means that we've been able to avoid a sort of debate around the solvency of gibraltar and i think that's good for all sides right now well we the spanish who have control and make sure that that drill to is abiding by those schengen policies so many ways that does cede a little bit of palettes to spain from the u.k. but it's a concession i think that is vital there were some debates around whether or not there would be delegates situated on gibraltar and i think that now has been resolved but ultimately it allows gibraltar to breathe a sigh of relief that allow them to have access to to despite invites us a i think there is going to be a time ways i can cite to talk about discussion again but i think that there is going to be a great sense of relief from the brics it hasn't brought up a solvency debate right here but i think perhaps a little bit closer to home nicholas nicholas doge and the south minister of

scotland she may well be looking at this with interests a bit gibraltar were taken out of the e.u. against their will and sort of scotland and then maybe it's gushing back so it opens up a can of worms. hong kong's top the court has revoked bail for media tycoon jimmy like the high profile pro-democracy activists is facing charges and the new security laws imposed by beijing he was released last week but prosecutors successfully argued he was a flight risk and should stay behind bars brown reports now from hong kong. jimmy like could just about be made out in the media crush outside the appeal called. a reminder this was no ordinary bail hearing of all the dissidents now being prosecuted in hong kong why is the most high profile he's accused of fraud as well as violating the new national security law. this was the 1st time the territories highest court had been asked to rule on a case related to that legislation namely an appeal by the prosecution against

a lower court's decision to grant lie beral that's now been overturned. paragraph 30 of this 12 page ruling makes clear that the 3 appeal court judges believe the judge in the lower court made an erroneous decision when he freed jimmy lie saying that decision was now invalid it's an outcome that will please hong kong's leader carrier but especially her masters in beijing. legal experts worried that china's government is trying to assert more influence over hong kong's judges pointing to reports in state media this week calling for lie to be put on trial on the mainland the state media yesterday and the day before was critical of the lower court's decision to release mr on bail that's a concern because it seems to be interfering with judicial independence in hong kong so it puts extra pressure on our highest court in many ways the appeal court

is housed in the former colonial era parliament symbol of an independent judiciary supposed to last until 2047 but lies supporters say that's now looking uncertain we always saw one used to work there but very fragile in these and under a lot of political pressure and it's up to the judges to defend it but you know it's quite disappointing i would say at this point. lies departure from court was as chaotic as his arrival his short lived pale means he got to spend christmas at home but his 1st day or 2021 will be back in jail 7. adrian brown al jazeera hong kong. local media in yemen is reporting that saudi led airstrikes have struck in the capital sana there said to targeted positions it

comes just hours after at least $26.00 people were killed in a blast at the airport in aden the attack happened shortly after members of yemen's newly inaugurated unity go. returned from saudi arabia. police in pakistan have arrested 24 people in overnight raids after a mob set a hindu temple on fire and raised it to the ground the attack happened after the members of the hindu community were given permission to renovate the century old place of worship is now it's are it's in the northwestern town of current angry protesters staged a protest in karate demanding justice the government has assured the community the temple will be rebuilt thought it was looking like one of the success stories of 2020 despite being the 1st country outside china to detect cave with 900 factions it had remarkably low infection rates in fewer than 100 fatalities a large new year's celebration had been planned in bangkok but a recent surge in infections threatens to raise all the gains of this year tony

chang reports now from the city. for 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 the visit of the wages of sin it's a popular destination for visitors to the seaside town of bangsar. 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 and if

the choice is letting people in of the cost of rising impaction rates 2021 when get any better if we are talking about the way how to boost 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 a 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 anxiety.

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 any rest by a few weeks ago thousands of people are expected here in downtown bangkok to mark the arrival of 2021 but a sudden rise in covert actions celebrations are being canceled and the government is 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. officials in new york's times square are making their final preparations for the new year's eve or the iconic crystal ball had its final test run a wednesday tens of thousands of people normally join the celebrations but it's been scaled down this year because of course of coronavirus a limited group of 1st responders have been invited to watch the event in person.

in australia sydney harbor bridge burst into a shower of lights but this year the fireworks were watched without the crowds the harbor front was evacuated earlier to prevent a super spreader of and recent clusters in the city reminded residents that it could be all too easy to drag sydney back into harsher distractions. german chancellor angela merkel warned people they will need to keep discipline to continue the fight against coronavirus in the new year she said even though vaccines have brought the virus will be a challenge for decades. so i don't sponsor his advice he wants to come what a year behind us in 2020 we had something coming over us the world could not expect a virus not known and tell it invaded our bodies and our lives it hit a square where mess human in contact in hugs in talks celebrations the virus made normal behavior risky and then usual protective behavior normal the

coronavirus pandemic was and is a political social and economic century long task. plenty of more of course on our website al-jazeera dot com is the address all the news we're covering right there and plenty of comment and analysis. so this is al-jazeera these are the top stories and the covert 19 vaccine made by the chinese pharmaceutical companies sign a farm has been given conditional approval 12 months after the virus was detected a move the company says the vaccine is around 79 percent effective u.s. president donald trump has blamed individual states for these slower than promised rollout of covert 1000 vaccines around 2000000 shots have been administered so far falling far short of the 20000000 promised by the end.