MONTREAL — A curfew meant to curb a rising tide of COVID-19 cases took effect across Quebec on Saturday evening.

Premier Francois Legault says the measure is needed to prevent gatherings that have fueled the rampant spread of the virus, The French-speaking Canadian province has a population of more than 8.4 million

The rules will see most residents face police questions or fines of up to $6,000 Canadian (U.S. $4,728) if they’re out between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. for the next four weeks. There are exceptions for essential workers, people walking dogs, and those who have medical reasons to be out, such as a doctor’s appointment.

Mexico sees record 16,105 new virus cases

MEXICO CITY — Mexico has posted another daily record for newly confirmed coronavirus cases, with 16,105 new infections reported Saturday, and a near-record of 1,135 deaths related to COVID-19 in the latest 24-hour period.

The country has now topped 1.5 million total infections and over 133,000 deaths so far in the pandemic. Given Mexico’s extremely low level of testing, official estimates suggest the real death toll is over 180,000.

Health authorities said 6,722 shots of coronavirus vaccine were administered Friday, for a total so far of about 75,000. In Mexico City, the current center of the pandemic in Mexico, 90% percent of hospital beds are full.

Rhode Island governor quarantining after contact with COVID-19 case

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island Lt. Gov. Daniel McKee is quarantining at home after coming into close contact with someone who later tested positive for COVID-19, officials said Saturday.

The lieutenant governor learned of the close contact Saturday morning, has since tested negative and is showing no symptoms, officials said. He will continue to be tested and will remained quarantined until midnight on Jan. 12, officials said.

McKee is poised to serve the remaining two years of Gov. Gina Raimondo’s term after Raimondo was named Democrat Joe Biden’s Biden’s pick for commerce secretary.

McKee said in a statement that “no one is above the rules of quarantine.”

“As a state official, I am committed to modeling the kind of response to this virus that I hope all Rhode Islanders would have. I will continue to meet with public health leaders and receive other critical briefings remotely,” he said.

Austin will treat patients at convention center

AUSTIN, Texas — Health officials in Austin say they will open space in the Austin Convention Center for COVID-19 patients because they expect that the area’s health care system will soon be overwhelmed.

The state health department reported a record number of hospitalizations for the 13th consecutive day. Nearly 14,000 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized statewide on Saturday.

The Alternate Care Site in Austin was initially established during a summer surge of the coronavirus, but has not yet taken patients, according to a statement from the Austin-Travis County Health Authority.

“Activating the Alternate Care Site means that we believe that it is inevitable that the healthcare system in Central Texas will exceed capacity and will soon be overwhelmed,” said Dr. Jason Pickett, deputy medical director of the health authority.

The site is for patients who do not need high-level or intensive care, according to the statement. Patients who require such care will remain at hospitals. As of Saturday, there have been more than 1.9 million virus cases in Texas and 29,691 deaths since the pandemic began.

Israeli prime minister receives second dose of vaccine 

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday received the second dose of the coronavirus vaccine after becoming the first Israeli to be inoculated last month.

Israel is in the midst of a third nationwide lockdown after seeing a surge in cases despite unleashing one of the world’s fastest vaccination campaigns. The country has given the first of two vaccine doses to nearly 20% of its population, and Netanyahu said Saturday that it has secured enough vaccines to inoculate the whole adult population by the end of March.

Netanyahu has placed the vaccination drive at the center of his campaign for reelection that month, when Israel will hold its fourth nationwide vote in less than two years. In the meantime, he has called on Israelis to make “one last big effort” to halt transmission by adhering to the tightened restrictions.

Most schools and businesses were closed starting Friday, with people required to remain within 1,000 meters (yards) from home except for essential needs. Public gatherings are heavily restricted and public transportation is limited. The restrictions are to last for at least two weeks.

Pope says he has appointment for COVID-19 shot

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has confirmed in an interview with an Italian broadcaster that he has an appointment to get the anti-COVID vaccine when the Vatican starts its vaccination program next week.

The pope also said everyone should get the vaccine, calling it an “ethical option, because you are playing with your health, life, but also with the lives of others.”

Excerpts from the sit-down interview were released by Mediaset on Saturday, a day before it is scheduled to be aired. It is the first confirmation that the 84-year-old pope who is missing part of one lung will get the vaccine, although the Vatican had already announced it would begin administering the vaccines later this month.

The Vatican has previously said that it’s “morally acceptable” for faithful to receive COVID-19 vaccines whose research used cell lines from tissue obtained from abortions. Vatican City has had at least 27 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Jordan expects to get vaccine Saturday

AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan announced it is expecting the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine to arrive in the kingdom late Saturday.

Wael Hayajneh, the Health Ministry’s official in charge of COVID-19, said the vaccines are coming from state-owned Chinese drugmaker Sinopharm.

Another shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is expected to get to the Middle Eastern kingdom on Monday, Hayajneh said.

Jordan plans to start its vaccination drive on Wednesday. It has arranged to secure 200,000 doses in the first quarter of 2021 from Pfizer and Sinopharm and possibly other vaccine suppliers.

Jordan’s health minister has said the inoculations will first target 20% to 25% of the frontline workers and vulnerable groups.

Jordan, with a population of 10 million, has recorded over 4,000 deaths and 305,000 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.

Appointments go fast in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Health officials in Anchorage said appointments for the city’s residents to receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine filled up in a matter of hours this week, leading to frustration for people still trying to sign up for vaccination clinics planned for throughout the weekend and early next week.

Local television station KTUU-TV reported that Anchorage Health Department Director Heather Harris said all 1,800 available time slots were reserved within a four-hour period on Thursday.

Clinics are not accepting walk-ins.

Harris said Anchorage is expecting to receive about 14,600 vaccine doses this month.

Residents age 65 and older are eligible to get vaccinated and there are about 33,000 people in that category.

UK reports more than 1,000 more dead

LONDON — Another 1,035 people in the U.K. have died within 28 days of testing positive for the coronavirus, bringing the country’s total death toll in the pandemic to over 80,000.

The British government reported Saturday that the number of confirmed deaths has reached 80,868, the most in Europe and the world’s fifth-highest pandemic death toll. The United States, Brazil, India and Mexico are in the top four.

Hospitals around the U.K. are under heavy pressure treating COVID-19 patients. London’s mayor declared the capital’s COVID-19 situation to be critical Friday, when the country’s daily reported deaths hit a record high of 1,325.

Official data also show that the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.K. has exceeded 3 million.

California desperately needs more medical workers

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California desperately needs more medical workers at facilities swamped by coronavirus patients, but almost no help is coming from a volunteer program that Gov. Gavin Newsom created at the start of the pandemic.

An army of 95,000 initially raised their hands, and just 14 are now working in the field.

Newsom says the program “has been incredibly effective.” But very few volunteers actually met qualifications for the California Health Corps, and only a tiny sliver have the high-level experience needed to help with the most serious virus cases.

Other states have had similar difficulties making volunteer programs work.

A researcher says many eligible volunteers may have found other jobs before the latest coronavirus surge.

Arizona crosses 10,000 deaths

PHOENIX — Arizona, which is a COVID-19 hot spot in the United States, has now recorded more than 10,000 deaths and 600,000 confirmed cases since the pandemic began.

The Department of Health Services reported 11,094 new cases and 98 deaths on Saturday, the second straight day that Arizona’s new confirmed cases exceeded 11,000.

The daily numbers brought Arizona’s total confirmed cases to 607,345 and the state’s death toll in the pandemic to 10,036.

Arizona and Rhode Island are tied for the country’s highest COVID-19 diagnosis rate, with 1 in every 109 people diagnosed with the disease between Jan. 1 and Friday.

There were 4,920 COVID-19 patients occupying hospital beds on Friday.

India set to begin vaccination efforts

NEW DELHI — The government of India is planning to kick off a vaccination drive on Jan. 16 to stem COVID-19 in the world’s second-most populous country.

The Health Ministry said Saturday that priority will be given to healthcare workers and others performing frontline duties during the pandemic, categories that together are estimated to include around 30 million people.

They will be followed by individuals over age 50 and younger people with underlying health conditions, numbering around 270 million, the ministry said in a statement.

Last week, India’s drugs regulator gave emergency authorization for the vaccine developed by Oxford University and U.K.-based drugmaker AstraZeneca, and for another developed by Indian company Bharat Biotech.

The ministry said that both vaccines would be administered in two dosages.

With 10.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases, India has the second-highest total behind the United States. Indian has reported almost 150,800 virus-related deaths during the pandemic.

Michigan cafe found in contempt of court

CALUMET, Michigan — A cafe in a small town in the U.S. state of Michigan has been found in contempt of court and fined $2,500 for continuing to serve customers indoors.

A judge held a hearing on Friday involving Cafe Rosetta, which serves soup, sandwiches and more in Calumet, a town of roughly 750 in Houghton County.

“When it comes to court orders, in my opinion, civil disobedience is not an option. It just absolutely is not,” Judge Wanda Stokes said.

The cafe’s food permit has been yanked. State regulators then got a Dec. 30 order from Stokes to shut down the business.

Since mid-November, Michigan restaurants and bars have been restricted to outdoor service or carry-out orders to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

Cafe Rosetta co-owner Amy Heikkinen said she can’t afford to limit business to carry-out orders. Hundreds of people rallied to support her on Jan. 2.

Stokes suspended the contempt fine until Wednesday to allow the cafe’s attorney to file legal arguments, The Daily Mining Gazette reported.

Twitter hides Ayatollah’s tweet about vaccine conspiracy theory

TEHRAN — Twitter has hidden a post on the account of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on a coronavirus vaccine conspiracy theory.

The tweet from the account of Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran, claimed that COVID-19 vaccines imported from the U.S. or U.K. were “completely untrustworthy.”

“It’s not unlikely they would want to contaminate other nations,” the tweet said, in reference to America and Britain.

The tweet also claimed that French coronavirus vaccines “aren’t trustworthy.”

A tweet on the leader’s Farsi-language account that appeared to make similar claims was still visible.

On Friday, Khamenei announced a ban on importing American and British vaccines. Iran’s Red Crescent said it will not import scores of thousands of American Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that a group of U.S.-based benefactors planned to donate to Iran.

However, Khamenei has OK’d vaccine imports from other “safe” places abroad.

Iran in December began the human test phase of its homemade vaccine that it is expected to distribute in the spring.

Iran has struggled to stem the worst virus outbreak in the Middle East, which has infected over 1.2 million people and killed more than 56,000.

Sri Lanka to free prisoners to combat virus

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan prison authorities have decided to free more than 100 prisoners who are serving jail terms because of their inability to pay fines, in an attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19 within crowded prisons.

By Saturday, 4,121 prisoners had tested positive, along with 129 officers, in five prisons in different parts of the country.

Sri Lankan prisons are highly overcrowded, with more than 26,000 inmates in facilities with the capacity for 10,000.

On Saturday, prison authorities said about 150 inmates who are serving jail terms because they could not pay the fines would be released under a special pardon announced by the government, in order to ease the congestion at the prisons.

Authorities have been releasing prisoners on various grounds since December.

Sri Lanka has seen a fresh outbreak of the disease since October when two clusters — one centered on a garment factory and other on a fish market — emerged in the capital, Colombo, and its suburbs. The prison cluster emerged later.

Confirmed cases from the three clusters grew to 43,525 on Saturday. Sri Lanka’s total number of positive cases since March is 47,304, with 225 fatalities.

Vaccine will be free in China

BEIJING — COVID vaccine shots will be free in China, where more than 9 million doses have been given to date, health officials in Beijing said Saturday.

“Ordinary people will not need to spend a penny,” Zheng Zhongwei, a National Health Commission official, said at a news conference.

The announcement cleared up confusion from a news conference nine days ago at which Zheng said it would be affordable, and a more senior official, Vice Minister Zeng Yixin, jumped in to say it would be free.

The costs will be covered by a national medical insurance fund and government funds. About 7.4 million shots have been given since a drive began Dec. 15 to inoculate medical and transport workers and other key groups ahead of Lunar New Year, a major holiday in mid-February. More than 1.6 million shots had been given in previous months.

Zeng, the vice minister, said the specific timing for a visit by a WHO expert team on the origins of the virus is being determined and that it would be joined by Chinese experts in Wuhan, the city where cases of the new coronavirus were first detected in late 2019.

WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed disappointment earlier this week that the Chinese side had not finalized the needed permissions for the visit. Two team members who were already en route had to turn back. Tedros said in Geneva on Friday that he expects the dates to be set next week.

Mexico posts new high for third straight day

MEXICO CITY — Mexico has posted its third straight day of a new high for coronavirus infections, with 14,362 newly confirmed cases and a near-record of 1,038 more deaths.

The country has now topped 1.5 million total infections and over 132,000 deaths so far in the pandemic.

The country’s extremely low testing rate means that is an undercount, and official estimates suggest the real death toll is over 180,000.

Officials say 6,623 people were vaccinated against the coronavirus Friday, a rate similar to previous days.

Mexico has received only about 107,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and has pinned much of its hopes on cheaper, easier-to-handle vaccines made by China’s CanSino, though that vaccine has not yet been approved for use.

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