TOP HEADLINES

- European shares are hovering at an eight-month high after Pfizer and its partner BioNTech announced their breakthrough in developing a COVID-19 vaccine, sparking one of the heaviest trading days since the start of the pandemic. 

- Hungarian lawmakers have approved new lockdown measures, which will take effect from Wednesday, while also granting Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government a special 90-day mandate to rule by decree to tackle the virus.

- The European Commission will approve on Wednesday a contract for the supply of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, its President Ursula von der Leyen has announced.

- Italy has ramped up restrictions in Tuscany and four other regions, effective on Wednesday, to rein in the second wave of the pandemic.

- Spain is set to get its first Pfizer vaccines in early 2021, with initial doses enough to immunize 10 million people, Health Minister Salvador Illa has said, adding the vaccination would be free for everyone.

- France's peak is still to come, according to health official Jerome Salomon, as Paris hospital director Julien Lenglet said Christmas and new year celebrations should be cancelled as they "could be at the origins of a potential new third wave." 

- Norway has recalled Home Guard forces to patrol its land border as neighbouring Sweden reported another surge in cases.

- Wales has cancelled all school exams next summer with grades to be based on classroom assessments instead to ensure fairness during the pandemic.

- National Health Service staff in the UK will be tested twice a week from Tuesday, health minister Matt Hancock has announced, in order to protect patients and health workers.

- Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has tested positive for the coronavirus, with his finance minister, defence minister and top aide also reported to be infected.

- France's unemployment rate hit its highest level in two years, reaching 9 percent in the third quarter. 

- G20 major economies are "moving in the wrong direction" in response to the pandemic by using stimulus spending to support industries heavily reliant on fossil fuels, according to a new report from Energy Policy Tracker.

AROUND EUROPE

Nawied Jabarkhyl in London

The UK's health service has been told to get ready to roll out a coronavirus vaccine "from the start of December." 

Health Minister Matt Hancock said vaccination clinics would be set up in public places such as sports halls and operate seven days a week. Britain's armed forces will also be called in to help with any mass-immunization program.

On Monday, early results from a study by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech showed their vaccine could prevent more than 90 percent of people from getting COVID-19.

However, Hancock reiterated calls from Prime Minister Boris Johnson for the public not to be complacent in thinking a vaccine was now available or that it had been proved to fight the virus.

Toni Waterman in Brussels

Pfizer's Antwerp factory has been chosen as one of two sites to produce its promising new vaccine.

Alongside its German partner BioNtech, the U.S. pharmaceutical giant plans to produce up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and 1.3 billion doses in 2021, meaning hundreds of millions of jabs could be rolling off the manufacturing line in Antwerp. 

Meanwhile, new infections in Belgium plunged by nearly half in the past week compared with the week before. The country averaged 8,260 cases a day. In another sign that the second wave is being brought under control, the reproduction rate, now at 0.89, continues to fall.

Trent Murray in Frankfurt

The success of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine trial has been widely welcomed in Germany, in part because of BioNTech's German origins. The biotechnology firm is based in Mainz and has long been viewed by European health experts as one of the main companies to watch when it comes to finding an effective vaccine. 

The European Medicine Agency has been reviewing the Pfizer-BioNTech results in near real-time, with the hope of expediting the approval process should the vaccine continue to show high efficacy in remaining trials.  

Germany's health minister, Jens Spahn, welcomed the vaccine announcement, saying the news was "very encouraging" because the data showed "that this vaccine makes a difference."

Mark Webster in Budapest

The Hungarian parliament is expected to approve new legislation today introducing tight new curbs in a bid to slow the spiraling rate of fresh infections and prevent the hospital system being overwhelmed. It's a dramatic reversal of the more relaxed approach the government has been taking until its number of new infections began rising fast.

The measures being voted on include a nationwide curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. except for those going to work or in exceptional circumstances: all secondary schools and universities are to close with only children under 14 attending education; hotels can only accept business customers; all large-scale gatherings including sports events are banned, with matches to be played behind closed doors; and only 10 family members are allowed to gather at any one time and restaurants are to close.

Ross Cullen in Paris

France has now overtaken Russia to record the fourth-highest number of total infections in the world, with France's director of public health saying the "peak of the epidemic is ahead of us." 

Jerome Salomon said cities that had a curfew in place before lockdown were starting to see a slight easing of the spread of the disease. He also noted that the government's contact-tracing app had been downloaded more than 8 million times and had so far notified 9,000 people that they have had close contact with someone who had tested positive.

On Tuesday, the Snuipp-FSU union said 20 percent of teachers were going on strike against what they say are insufficient sanitary protocols in schools. 

With France well into its second lockdown, Airparif, an air-quality monitor, said this round of measures was not having the same effect on air pollution as the first confinement. And as the economic fallout bites, France's finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, said the state would pay 30 percent of this month's rent in the form of a tax credit, calling on landlords to "forgo your November rents."

FROM OUR GLOBAL COLLEAGUES

CGTN Europe: First 'milestone' COVID-19 vaccine is 90% effective, says Pfizer

CGTN China: Chinese mainland reports 22 new COVID-19 cases

CGTN America: COVID-19 cases surge in U.S. nursing homes

CGTN Africa: Africa's COVID-19 cases top 1.87 million

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CGTN Europe has been providing in-depth coverage of the novel coronavirus story as it has unfolded. Here you can read the essential information about the crisis.