Thailand plans to test more than 10,000 people after a record daily surge in coronavirus cases to over 500, most of which were among migrant workers linked to a shrimp market near the capital, an official said on Sunday.

By Wednesday the authorities aim to conduct 10,300 tests in the southwest province of Samut Sakhon, where the outbreak appeared, and other nearby provinces, a spokesman for Thailand's Covid-19 taskforce, told a news conference.

"Active case findings will continue in several provinces, actually across the country," he said.

Thailand, the first country outside China to report coronavirus infections, has largely kept the outbreak under control with 4,907 cases and 60 deaths.

Worried children can rest easy after the nation’s leading infectious disease expert assured them on Saturday that Santa Claus has gotten a Covid-19 vaccine.

The world’s most famed gift-giver will be safe to travel around the world on Christmas Eve, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci was answering questions from children during a Sesame Street town hall with CNN when the concern arose.

“Will Santa still be able to visit me in coronavirus this season,” 6-year-old Paxton from Illinois asked. “What if he can’t go to anyone’s house or near his reindeer?”

“I took a trip up there to the North Pole,” Fauci said. “I went there and I vaccinated Santa Claus myself. I measured his level of immunity, and he is good to go...Santa Claus is good to go.”

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Distribution for Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine began on Sunday, just two days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized it for emergency use.

Moderna’s vaccine distribution means the U.S. now has two vaccines in its arsenal to fight the pandemic that has infected more than 17.7 million Americans and claimed more than 317,000 lives.

McKesson, a healthcare supply chain management company, is shipping the vaccine around the country from its distribution centers in Olive Branch, Mississippi, and outside of Louisville, Kentucky.

It began filling its first orders on Sunday, including the vaccine and ancillary supply kits needed to administer the shot. The company said their initial deliveries, at the U.S. government's direction, should arrive by Monday.

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Adm. Brett Giroir, the Trump administration's Covid testing czar, on Sunday urged President Donald Trump to get vaccinated, saying that the move would "inspire confidence" about the vaccine's safety and effectiveness.

"I think any leader who is influential over groups of individuals should have the vaccine," Giroir, the assistant secretary for health and human services, said during an interview on ABC's "This Week," adding, "I think leadership like the vice president, the surgeon general, you know, should get vaccines because they will inspire confidence in — with the people who believe in them and trust them."

"And again, we have every reason to believe that this vaccine, these two vaccines, are very effective and they are safe," he continued. "So, you know, I would encourage the president to get a vaccine for his own health and safety and also to generate more confidence among the people who follow him so closely."

Other top administration officials like Vice President Mike Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams have taken vaccine shots publicly. Biden and incoming first lady Jill Biden will receive the vaccine on Monday, with Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, set to receive it the following week. 

Last week, Trump, who battled Covid-19 earlier this year, tweeted he is "not scheduled to take the vaccine, but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time."

As vaccinations against the coronavirus begin to roll out across the country, Dr. Olveen Carrasquillo says he's been getting many questions from his predominantly Latino patients, including whether the vaccine contains the virus and whether there are side effects to taking it.

“People are not sure what’s in the vaccines. They want to know,” said Carrasquillo, the chief of general internal medicine at the University of Miami and one of the principal investigators for the Janssen vaccine trial.

Covid-19 has hit U.S. Latinos disproportionately hard in many areas of the U.S., making vaccinations a crucial public health mission. But doctors like Carrasquillo are hearing skepticism about the vaccines because of the lack of reliable information, especially in Spanish, coupled with disinformation that has been circulating.

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Several European countries placed new travel restrictions on the United Kingdom on Sunday amid concern over a new strain of the coronavirus that is spreading rapidly in the country's capital and the southeast of England.

In an effort to prevent the new variant from spreading across country lines, Belgium said it would close its borders to trains and planes coming from the U.K. and the Netherlands also suspended flights. Italy's foreign minister indicated his government was planning a similar ban.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and scientists announced on Saturday that the new virus strain, which is 70 percent more transmissible than existing strains, had led to spiraling infection numbers.

The U.K. government subsequently tightened its Covid-19 restrictions for London and nearby areas, disrupting the Christmas holiday plans of millions of people.

Dr. Michael Saag cannot get enough monoclonal antibodies to treat Covid-19.

They're not for him, personally; he still has natural antibodies to the coronavirus since recovering from the illness this past March.

But Saag, an infectious disease physician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said he would take the monoclonal antibodies — made in a lab to mirror the body's natural immune response to the virus — "in a heartbeat" if he were to be infected a second time.

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A college football semifinal scheduled to take place Jan. 1 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, has been moved to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Rose Bowl officials announced Saturday night.

The move was the result of the region's surge in coronavirus cases, the venue said. Los Angeles County health officials Saturday said they have counted more than 600,000 cases since the pandemic began. State pandemic restrictions include 20 percent capacity at essential retailers and no dining.

The city of Pasadena is in Los Angeles County but has its own health department that keeps a separate tally of cases. On Saturday it recorded 5,497 cases since the pandemic started.

The Rose Bowl cited a regional strain on "medical resources" as well as "word late this week that the State of California would not make a special exception for player guests at the game," according to a statement.

"The decision to move the game is based on the growing number of COVID-19 cases in Southern California along with the inability to host player and coach guests at any game in California," the Rose Bowl said.