The Latest: Infections level off in Italy; restrictions stay

A man walks past a poster in the window of a clothing shop in Manchester, England, Saturday Nov. 28, 2020. A four-week national lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus is still restricting civil liberties and will put more pressure on shops to attract customers back to shopping streets when restrictions are relaxed in the run-up to Christmas. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Zulu traditional men, sing and dance during a community and a local government campaign against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and education on COVID-19, at a hostel in Katlehong, near Johannesburg, South Africa, Saturday, Nov. 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Christmas lightings are pictured where the Christmas market usually takes place, Friday, Nov.27, 2020 in Strasbourg, eastern France. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the well-known festive market will not be taking place this year. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

A man sits in front of a bank of Christmas lights in the colors of the Spanish flag in Madrid, Spain, Friday, Nov. 27, 2020. People are waiting to see what restrictions will be in place over Christmas and the New Year as Spanish regions are continuing to adjust their various limitations against the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Paul White)

People gather by a Christmas tree illuminating the Old Town Square in Prague, Czech Republic, Saturday, Nov. 28, 2020. Prague city hall has lit up the Christmas Tre but cancelled the traditional Christmas markets due to a record surge in coronavirus infections. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

A woman next to a Black Friday poster in the window of a mobile phone store in Manchester city centre, England, although most stores remain closed Saturday Nov. 28, 2020. A four-week national lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus is still restricting civil liberties and will put more pressure on shops to attract customers back to shopping streets when restrictions are relaxed in the run-up to Christmas. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Artists wearing face masks as a precaution against the coronavirus perform on a street open to only pedestrians during weekends in Bengaluru, India, Saturday, Nov. 28, 2020. The project called Clean Air Street initiative was launched earlier this month and will run through February, 2021. India has more than 9 million cases of coronavirus, second behind the United States. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Housing activists erect a sign in front of Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker's house, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020, in Swampscott, Mass. Renters are still being evicted during the coronavirus pandemic despite a federal order that is supposed to keep them in their homes. The nationwide eviction ban went into effect Sept. 4 and was supposed to replace many state and local bans that had expired. But tenant advocates said there are still people unaware of the directive implemented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that broadly prevents evictions for nonpayment of rent through the end of 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, file)

ROME — Italy’s coronavirus infections have leveled off after nearly a month of new restrictions, with another 26,323 new positive cases and stabilizing numbers in hospital intensive care units.

But public health officials warned Saturday that the second wave of the outbreak is hardly under control, with 10 regions still declared high risk and the daily number of dead — 686 on Saturday — likely to be the last number to fall.

At a briefing, members of Italy’s government scientific advisory committee said it would be unthinkable to relax restrictions over Christmas or reopen shuttered ski slopes, saying the risk of contagion is particularly high when far-flung extended families get together.

As a result, Italians’ typical Christmas Eve dinner en famille “is something we have to give up this year,” said Dr. Franco Locatelli.

Italy, the springtime European epicenter of the pandemic, has seen a sharp resurgence in infections this fall that pushed its COVID-19 death toll to 54,363, the second highest in Europe after Britain. The government opted against second nationwide lockdown, instead imposing restrictions on a regional basis based on caseload and the ability of the health system to respond.

___

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— With no action by Washington, states race to offer virus aid

— Los Angeles orders more restrictions as coronavirus surges

— Speed of viral spread causes concern in South Korea

— Christmas tree growers who have faced increased interest in artificial trees in recent years say demand for real evergreens is strong this season.

— Belgium is urging people to leave a chair empty at Christmas dinner — or face the possibility of having that chair empty forever.

— The German government is preparing a nationwide coronavirus vaccine program as it became the latest country to hit the milestone of 1 million confirmed cases.

___

Follow AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

___

HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

LONDON — British police have arrested dozens of people at an anti-lockdown demonstration in London.

Anti-mask and anti-vaccine demonstrators, some with placards reading “stop controlling us” and “no more lockdowns,” marched along Oxford and Regent streets in the city’s central shopping district on Saturday.

Police officers led several people away in handcuffs after protesters ignored requests to disperse. Several bottles and smoke bombs were thrown as some demonstrators scuffled with police.

The Metropolitan Police force said more than 60 people were arrested and the number was expected to rise.

Mass gatherings are banned under England’s current lockdown measures.

Britain’s relatively small but vocal anti-lockdown movement includes anti-vaccine activists, conspiracy theorists and people who believe the restrictions infringe civil liberties.

___

NEW YORK — The number of new COVID-19 cases reported in the United States reached 205,557 on Friday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University – the first time its daily figure topped the 200,000 mark.

Its previous daily high was 196,000 on Nov. 20.

The total number of reported cases in the U.S., since the first one was registered in January, has topped 13 million.

___

LONDON — The British government has appointed a vaccines minister as it prepares to inoculate millions of people against the coronavirus, potentially starting within days.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Conservative lawmaker Nadhim Zahawi will oversee the country’s biggest vaccine program in decades.

The U.K. medicines regulator is currently assessing two vaccines — one developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, the other by Oxford University and AstraZeneca — to see if they are safe and effective. The Guardian newspaper reported that hospitals have been told they could receive the first doses of the Pfizer shot the week of Dec. 7 if it receives approval.

The U.K. says frontline health care workers and nursing home residents will be the first to be vaccinated, followed by older people, starting with those over 80.

Britain has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine — enough for 20 million people — and 100 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

___

BANGKOK — Health authorities in northern Thailand have traced and tested more than 300 people who were in contact with a Thai women who returned from Myanmar and tested positive for the coronavirus after somehow avoiding a mandatory quarantine.

Dr. Opas Karnkawinpong, director-general of the Department of Disease Control, said Saturday it was the 10th case in the past two months of community transmission, where it could not be ascertained with certainty where the patient caught the virus. Another case earlier this month involved the Hungarian foreign minister who arrived from Cambodia, but more typical cases involved people who had crossed the border illegally from Myanmar or Malaysia and were not immediately tested or quarantined, he said.

The 29-year-old woman had been in Myanmar for a month during a coronavirus surge before entering Thailand on Nov. 24. She then spent three days including visits to a nightclub and department store in Chiang Mai, the most populous northern province, before going to a hospital where she tested positive for the disease.

Health officials traced and tested 326 people who had been in contact with her and quarantined the 105 judged most at risk.

Thailand since January has had 3,966 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, including 60 deaths.

___

TOKYO — The number of people hospitalized in serious condition for COVID-19 in Japan reached a record 440 people, the health ministry said Saturday.

Daily confirmed cases topped more than 2,600 people, a record for Japan, according to tallies by local media. In Tokyo, daily cases have totaled more than 500 recently, raising alarm about a third wave of infections. The number had been hovering at about half that level for the past couple of months.

Although Japan has never had a lockdown, restaurants and bars have periodically closed early, including in Tokyo starting Saturday. More than 2,000 people have died related to the coronavirus pandemic nationwide.

___

LONDON — The British government is warning lawmakers who oppose strict coronavirus restrictions that the measures are the only way to avoid a surge that will overwhelm the health system.

A four-week national lockdown in England is due to end Wednesday, and will be replaced by three-tier regional measures that restrict business activity, travel and socializing. The vast majority of the country is being put into the upper two tiers.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces opposition from dozens of his own Conservative Party’s lawmakers, who say the economic damage outweighs the public health benefits. Some say they will vote against the measures in Parliament on Tuesday.

Cabinet minister Michael Gove said the measures were “grimly” necessary. Writing in The Times of London, he said there are currently 16,000 coronavirus patients in British hospitals, not far below the April peak of 20,000. Gove said a rise in infections would mean coronavirus patients would “displace all but emergency cases. And then even those.”

Britain has had Europe’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreak, with more than 57,000 coronavirus-related deaths.

___

PARIS — Non-essential shops around France are opening their doors Saturday, as part of a staggered relaxing of lockdown restrictions. The plans that come after a drop in nationwide virus infection rates were laid out by President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week.

All businesses, as well as delivery services, are authorized to open until 9 p.m. if they respect the French government’s reinforced sanitary protocol, including mask-wearing and social distancing.

That includes bookstores, music shops, libraries and archives.

___

BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel is appealing anew to Germans to adhere to coronavirus restrictions as the Christmas period begins, telling her compatriots that “it will be worth it.”

Federal and state leaders this week decided to extend a partial shutdown that started Nov. 2 until at least Dec. 20 and tighten some restrictions. The measures so far have succeeded in halting a rise in new cases, but haven’t pushed them down significantly.

The national disease control center on Saturday reported 21,695 infections in the past 24 hours, compared with 22,964 a week earlier. There were another 379 deaths linked to COVID-19. Germany has reported just over 1 million cases and 15,965 deaths since the pandemic began.

Merkel said in her weekly video message that Germans can be proud of their discipline and thoughtfulness over the past 10 months and encouraged them to keep to the rules and reduce their contacts over the festive season.

She said: “Let us continue to show people what we’re made of by sticking to the rules that apply to all of us now, in winter, before Christmas, over the new year. Because we will see that it will be worth it.”

___

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has reported more than 500 new coronavirus cases for the third straight day, the speed of viral spread unseen since the worst wave of the outbreak in spring.

The 504 cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday brought the national caseload to 33,375, including 522 deaths.

Around 330 of the new cases came from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, home to about half of the country’s 51 million population, where health workers are struggling to stem transmissions linked to hospitals, schools, saunas, gyms and army units.

Infections were also reported in other major cities including Daegu, which was the epicenter of the country’s previous major outbreak in late February and March.

The recent spike in infections came after the government eased social distancing restrictions to the lowest levels in October to support a weak economy, allowing high-risk venues like nightclubs and karaoke bars to reopen and spectators to return to sports.

Officials reimposed some of the restrictions this week and could be forced to clamp down on economic activities further if transmissions don’t slow.

___

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois has risen above 12,000 deaths from COVID-19, while also surpassing the 700,000 mark for confirmed coronavirus infections.

The latest 1,000 deaths were recorded in just nine days — matching the state’s deadliest period previously in the pandemic in late April and early May, according to an Associated Press review of the data.

After a quiet summer, the virus aggressively returned in October. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases jumped from 500,000 to 700,000 over the past 17 days.

___

MEXICO CITY — Mexico reported a record daily increase in the number of coronavirus cases Friday, with 12,081 more infections reported.

The Health Department said the situation constituted an “alert,” and said that nationwide, infections had risen by over 8% last week.

Most of the newly-reported infections occurred in previous weeks, but tests results were reported Friday. The rise was greatest in Mexico City, where detected infections rose by over 34% last week.

City authorities have increased testing in the capital, including the use of antigen tests, and said that the larger number of tests may account for the rise.

In most parts of Mexico, only people with serious symptoms are tested, leading to an undercount of infections.

___

ATLANTA — A panel of U.S. advisers will meet Tuesday to vote on how scarce, initial supplies of a COVID-19 vaccine will be given out once one has been approved.

Experts have proposed giving the vaccine to health workers first. High priority also may be given to workers in essential industries, people with certain medical conditions and people age 65 and older.

Tuesday’s meeting is for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group established by the CDC. The panel of experts recommends who to vaccinate and when -- advice the government almost always follows.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have asked the FDA to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Moderna Inc. is expected to also seek emergency use of its vaccine soon.

___

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County has announced a new stay-home order amid a surge in coronavirus cases in the nation’s most populous county.

The three-week order takes effect Monday. It was announced Friday as the county confirmed 24 new deaths from COVID-19 and 4,544 new virus infections. Nearly 2,000 people in the county are hospitalized.

The order advises people to stay home “as much as possible” and to wear face coverings when they go out. It bans people from gathering with others who aren’t in their households, publicly or privately. Church services and protests are exempted as “constitutionally protected rights.”

Businesses can remain open but with limited capacity. Beaches, trails, and parks also will remain open.

___

MIAMI — South Florida Congressman-elect Carlos Gimenez has tested positive for coronavirus.

His campaigned announced Friday that the former Miami-Dade County mayor and his wife, Lourdes, tested positive Thursday for COVID-19 after having mild symptoms.

They said they’re self-isolating at home, in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and advice from medical professionals.

“I will continue attending New Member Orientation virtually and preparing our office to serve the people of Florida’s 26th Congressional District from Westchester to Key West until I can resume my normal schedule,” Gimenez said in a statement.