Coronavirus: Latest global developments

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic tests positive for Covid-19, a week after he attended an EU summit in Brussels at which French President Emmanuel Macron may have also caught the virus.

"I was to spend Christmas helping at a hospital. Now my plans will be a little different," the 47-year-old says.

Macron, 42, has "real symptoms", officials say, but is continuing to work in self-isolation from an official residence outside Paris.

US Vice President Mike Pence gets a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine shot live on television as his boss President Donald Trump - who has often downplayed the virus - sparks confusion over a second anti-Covid drug.

Trump, who is not planning to take a vaccine soon, says the Moderna shot had been "overwhelmingly approved" before the country's Food and Drug Administration gave its official verdict, expected later Friday.

Burundi's former president Pierre Buyoya dies in Paris of Covid-19 aged 71 just weeks after resigning as the African Union's special envoy to strife-torn Mali and the Sahel.

Spain will start vaccinations on 27 December, a day after it gets the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the vaccine will start being given across the EU between 27 and 29 December.

Spain is one of the worst-hit countries in the bloc with 49 000 dead and an official study saying one in 10 people have had the virus.

China - where the virus was first spotted - says its economy has yet to fully recover from the pandemic although analysts believe it has been less affected other major economies.

Officials at an annual policy meeting presided over by President Xi Jinping pledged financial support for recovery efforts.

A Chinese citizen journalist who livestreamed from Wuhan after the virus first emerged there is to be tried later this month, her lawyers say.

Zhang Zhan, 37, was critical of the government's response and has since been detained for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble".

Beijing has faced accusations of covering up the initial outbreak and silencing whistleblowers.

At least 1 662, 92 people have died since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP on Friday.

Most new deaths were in the US with 3 249, followed by Brazil with 1 092 and Mexico with 718.

The US is also the worst-affected country with 310 792 deaths followed by Brazil with 184 827, India with 144 789, Mexico with 116 487 and Italy with 67 220 deaths.