Pfizer Inc and BioNTech could secure emergency U.S. and European authorization for their COVID-19 vaccine next month after final trial results showed it had a 95% success rate and no serious side effects, the drugmakers said on Wednesday.

Britain's medicines regulator said on Wednesday that final late-stage trial results from Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine candidate were very encouraging, adding it would need to see the full data before making an assessment of the shot.

Governments and officials are voicing hopes that COVID-19 vaccines could bring "herd immunity", with some calculating that immunising just two-thirds of a population could halt the pandemic disease and help protect whole communities or nations.

German police unleashed water cannon and pepper spray in an effort to scatter thousands of protesters angry about a new legal framework for enforcing coronavirus restrictions passed by parliament on Wednesday.

Air France-KLM is among airlines gearing up for the challenge of transporting millions of doses of temperature-sensitive COVID-19 vaccines in the midst of a travel slump.

The number of reported global daily deaths from the coronavirus stood at 10,816 on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, the highest single-day death count as the virus's global epicenter the United States entered winter.

Pfizer Inc said on Wednesday that final results from the late-stage trial of its COVID-19 vaccine showed it was 95% effective, adding it had the required two-months of safety data and would apply for emergency U.S. authorization within days.

Ukraine faces a "very severe" period of COVID-19 cases but will not tighten lockdown restrictions because measures taken last week should stabilise the situation, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov told Reuters on Wednesday.

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Wednesday faced opposition calls to resign after her agriculture minister stepped down over an illegal order by the government to cull the country's farmed mink.

Portugal has set up a taskforce to come up with a COVID-19 vaccination strategy and hopes to be prepared to start distributing shots as early as January, Health Minister Marta Temido said on Wednesday.