The drugmaker Pfizer announced on Monday that early analysis of its coronavirus vaccine trial suggested the vaccine was robustly effective in preventing Covid-19, a promising development as the world has waited anxiously for any positive news about a pandemic that has killed more than 1.2 million people.   Pfizer, which developed the vaccine with the German drugmaker BioNTech, released only sparse details from its clinical trial, based on the first formal review of the data by an outside panel of experts. The company said that the analysis found that the vaccine was more than 90 percent effective in preventing the disease among trial volunteers who had no evidence of prior coronavirus infection. If the results hold up, that level of protection would put it on par with highly effective childhood vaccines for diseases such as measles. No serious safety concerns have been observed, the company said. Pfizer plans to ask the Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorizatio...

  USA: The West Texas city of El Paso, which is seeing facilities hard-pressed to handle the fast-rising number of coronavirus cases, is preparing to open its civic center for additional beds and add a fourth mobile morgue. University Medical Center of El Paso's spokesman Ryan Mielke told CNN their hospital has 222 patients with Covid-19. "We set a record yesterday and beat it today," Mielke said. "It is just a new peak every day." About 978 patients with the virus are hospitalized in El Paso -- a city of 680,000 residents -- and 273 of those are in intensive care, according to the city's coronavirus dashboard. The city is about to use its civic center for Covid-19 patients and will have 50 beds, Mielke said. The hospital has already expanded its Covid-19 capacity by partnering with El Paso Children's Hospital, which has dedicated a floor to non-Covid-19 overflow patients, and it has a mobile isolation tent outside the hospital accepting patients. A four...