COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 27 November

1. How COVID-19 is affecting the globe

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have now passed 61 million globally, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 1.43 million.

South Korea has reported more than 500 new COVID-19 cases for a second consecutive day – levels not seen in nearly nine months.

Ireland is set to reopen pubs and restaurants on 7 December. They were closed on 21 October, when the government shut all non-essential retail, and pubs and restaurants were limited to takeaway service.

Berlin is planning to open six mass vaccination centres, capable of handling up to 4,000 people per day by mid-December.

New post-lockdown tiers have been announced for England, with 20 million people set to be under the toughest level of restrictions.

The European Central Bank must keep borrowing costs low to allow governments to spend their way out of a pandemic-induced recession, ECB board member Fabio Panetta told a Portuguese newspaper.

Australia's second largest state, Victoria, once the country's coronavirus hotspot, has now gone 28 days without detecting any new infections.

2. The potential impact of a vaccine

The introduction of a COVID-19 vaccine should allow the world to gain control over the disease next year, Dr Mike Ryan, the Executive Director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Programme, told Irish TV.

“Life as we used to know it, I think that’s very, very possible but we will have to continue with the hygiene, physical distancing. Vaccines do not equal zero COVID. Adding vaccines to our current measures will allow us to really crush the curve, avoid lockdowns and gain progressive control over the disease,” he said.

But he warned about the potential impact of Christmas.

“We need to be absolutely aware that we need to reduce the chance that we could infect someone else in just organising households carefully around the Christmas festivities."

3. Britain asks regulator to assess Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine

Britain has asked its medical regulator to assess the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca for temporary supply.

“We have formally asked the regulator to assess the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, to understand the data and determine whether it meets rigorous safety standards,” Health Minister Matt Hancock said in a statement.

“This letter is an important step towards deploying a vaccine as quickly as safely possible.”

Questions have been raised though about the robustness of the trial's results, which showed the vaccine could be 90% effective when given as a half dose followed by a full dose. AstraZeneca said the half dose was approved by independent data safety monitors and the UK regulator, adding that the regulator publicly confirmed there was “no concern”.