Dr Anthony Fauci, the US infectious disease expert, has reassured children that Santa Claus is immune to the coronavirus and will not face any problems delivering presents this Christmas. 'Santa is exempt from this because Santa, of all the good qualities, has a lot of good innate immunity,' Fauci told USA Today.
With the US recording over 11 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 252,000 deaths, concerns had been raised that Santa's traditional Christmas Eve journey could expose him to the virus. However, Fauci stated: 'Santa is not going to be spreading any infections to anybody.'
Despite this, Santa Claus has already taken precautions by offering Zoom calls and limiting appearances at malls. Some shopping centres have introduced plexiglass barriers to separate Santa from children, while others require face masks and enforce social distancing. Health experts have urged Americans to get flu vaccines to avoid a 'twindemic' of COVID-19 and influenza.
Meanwhile, Pfizer has applied for emergency use authorisation of its COVID-19 vaccine in the US, which was shown to be 95% effective in final trials. Officials hope to have 20 million doses available by the end of the year.
