Belgium's retirement homes have been ignored in the Covid-19 pandemic, effectively "abandoned" by authorities who trampled their residents' human rights, Amnesty International alleged in a report on Monday.

U.S. biotech firm Moderna on Monday announced its experimental vaccine against Covid-19 was almost 95 percent effective, marking a second major breakthrough in the quest to end the pandemic.

Moderna released early results from a clinical trial with more than 30,000 participants, after American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech last week said their vaccine was 90 percent effective. 

The head of the World Health Organization said Monday that a vaccine would not by itself stop the coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic is raging months after it broke out, with infections soaring past 54 million and claiming more than 1.3 million lives.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday he was in "good health" and had no symptoms despite self-isolating after an MP he was in contact with tested positive for coronavirus.

Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax: executives at several American laboratories developing Covid-19 vaccines have recently pocketed millions of dollars by selling shares in their companies -- raising questions about the propriety of such a move in the midst of a national health crisis.

Germany warned Sunday that its anti-coronavirus measures were likely to last four or five more months, as Greece announced a new ban on gatherings and Mexico surpassed one million infections.

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More than 1.3 million people have been killed by the novel coronavirus worldwide, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.

As the world celebrates advances in vaccines against the novel coronavirus, a top WHO expert warned in an interview with AFP that public distrust risked rendering even the most effective treatments useless against the pandemic.

"A vaccine that sits in a freezer or in a refrigerator or on a shelf and doesn't get used is doing nothing to help shorten this pandemic," said Kate O'Brien, director of the World Health Organization's immunisation department.

Bars and restaurants in America's biggest city will close early from Friday as the coronavirus outbreak surges across the United States and Europe, where Greece is being forced into a nighttime curfew.