What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

Biden vows 100 mln vaccinations in first 100 days U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday laid out his plan to fight the coronavirus pandemic during his first 100 days in office, saying his administration would vaccinate 100 million Americans, push to reopen schools and strengthen mask mandates.

Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now: COVID-19 case aboard Singapore 'cruise-to-nowhere'

A passenger aboard a Royal Caribbean 'cruise-to-nowhere' from Singapore has tested positive for COVID-19, forcing around 2,000 guests to be quarantined in their cabins and the Quantum of the Seas ship to return to dock on Wednesday a day before the end of its planned four-day sailing. Singapore has been piloting the trips, which are open only to residents, make no stops and sail in waters just off the city-state. Confirming the positive test, Royal Caribbean said in a statement that all guests and crew who had close contact with the infected guest have subsequently tested negative for the virus.

"Emergency response plans have been activated according to guidelines including immediate isolation of close contacts, contact tracing and deep-cleaning of the ship," Annie Chang, director of the cruise segment at Singapore Tourism Board said. Biden vows 100 mln vaccinations in first 100 days

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday laid out his plan to fight the coronavirus pandemic during his first 100 days in office, saying his administration would vaccinate 100 million Americans, push to reopen schools and strengthen mask mandates. U.S. coronavirus cases crossed the 15 million mark on Tuesday as the pandemic killed 15,000 Americans in the last week alone. Meanwhile, regulators moved a step closer to approving Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released documents that raised no new issues about its safety or efficacy.

Record cases in at least three states - Arizona, Alabama and Ohio - have pushed the cumulative U.S. case load to over 15 million, according to a Reuters tally of state and county data. nL1N2IO12S] South Korea reports second-highest new COVID-19 cases

South Korea reported 686 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday as it battles a third wave of infection that is threatening to overwhelm its medical system. The daily tally was the second-highest since the start of the pandemic, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). New cases have been consistently around 600 over the past week. Tougher social distancing rules took effect on Tuesday, including unprecedented curfews on restaurants and most other businesses.

The government has also introduced a new testing method to cater to surging demand, and eased rules to release some recovered patients faster to free up hospital beds. As U.S. companies push to get workers vaccinated, states disagree on who's essential

Companies and industry groups lobbying to get their U.S. workers to the front of the line for COVID vaccination are running into a patchwork of state plans and confusion over who is essential, and who is not. To date, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an independent panel of health experts recommending vaccine distribution guidelines to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has only recommended healthcare personnel and residents of long-term care facilities should receive the vaccine first - a priority not disputed by any industry or state.

In New York, essential frontline workers regularly interacting with the public, such as pharmacists, grocery store workers and transit employees, are slated to receive the vaccine in a second distribution phase, while Florida included all essential workers on a U.S. Homeland Security list. 

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)