What you need to know about the coronavirus today

U.S. holiday travelers defy warnings
Millions of Americans appeared to be disregarding public health warnings and traveling ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Although fewer in number than last year, people were flocking to airports and highways against the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. surgeon general and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert.
Some 1 million passengers passed through airport security gates on Sunday, the highest number since March.

England to use testing to shorten quarantine
England will introduce a new system on Dec. 15 allowing passengers arriving from high-risk countries to take a COVID-19 test after five days of quarantine and to be released from any further self-isolation if they test negative.
Airlines and other companies in the travel and tourism industries had been calling for such a scheme for months, having suffered devastating consequences from a 14-day quarantine rule that has deterred people from traveling.
England’s current lockdown bans most international travel but when it ends on Dec. 2 people will be free to go abroad whatever restrictions are imposed in their local area, transport minister Grant Shapps said on Tuesday.
Germany to let up to 10 celebrate Christmas together
Germany’s 16 federal states plan to allow gatherings of up to 10 people over Christmas and New Year, offering a relaxation of restrictions to let families and friends celebrate together, a draft proposal showed on Tuesday.
The premiers of the states are due to discuss their plans with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday. Berlin mayor Michael Mueller told ARD television he was confident the measures, agreed by the leaders late on Monday, would be adopted.
The premiers of two states also said there was broad agreement to extend a national “lockdown light” until Dec. 20, to make family gatherings over Christmas possible.
Australia opens up more borders
Australia will lift more internal state border restrictions in a boost for tourism as new coronavirus infections slow to a trickle, while the first vaccines could be available in March, a government minister said on Tuesday.
Queensland state, a popular holiday destination, will allow visitors next week from the country’s two most populous states, New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, after closing its borders in August.
NSW has since notched a month without any COVID-19 cases where the source is unknown and restrictions on arrivals from Sydney will be eased on Dec. 1, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.
Russia’s vaccine to be cheaper than rivals
Russia will charge less for its Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine than rivals as Moscow aims to produce more than 1 billion doses at home and abroad next year, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said on Tuesday.
Details of the exact pricing are expected later on Tuesday, but Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund, told Reuters that Sputnik V would be priced significantly lower than other rivals with similar efficacy levels.
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Top stories

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden began a new phase in his transition to the White House after the Trump administration gave the Democrat access to critical resources that will enable him to take the reins of power in January. The General Services Administration’s announcement that it would formally recognize Biden’s transition came after weeks of the president falsely claiming that the Nov. 3 election had been marred by widespread voter fraud.

Joe Biden is expected to nominate former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as U.S. Treasury secretary, breaking a 231-year gender barrier and putting a seasoned economist and labor market expert in charge of leading the country out of the steepest downturn since the Great Depression. The move, confirmed by Democratic allies to the Biden campaign, will shift Treasury’s focus heavily toward progressive efforts to tackle growing economic inequality and fighting climate change.

General Motors said it was reversing course and will no longer back the Trump administration’s effort to bar California from setting its own emissions rules in an ongoing court fight. GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said in a letter to environmental groups it was “immediately withdrawing from the preemption litigation and inviting other automakers to join us.”

Stocks, oil and risk currencies including bitcoin gained as the formal go-ahead for U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to begin his transition burnished a November already boosted by COVID-19 vaccines.

Special Report

Faced with one of the highest death tolls from the first wave of the coronavirus, Boris Johnson pledged a “world-beating” test-and-trace system to prevent a resurgence this winter. A Reuters investigation reveals how that promise came unstuck.