US giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech was preparing yesterday to file an emergency request to roll out their vaunted vaccine while New York shut its schools and California braced for nighttime curfews heading into the US holiday season. 

The world is seeking salvation from scientists and pharmaceutical giants as it returns to the grimly familiar shutdowns and closures that traumatised nations and upturned the global economy at the start of the year.

India's hospitals are once again struggling to cope and its graveyards are filling as infections crossed nine million in the Asian giant -- second only to the United States.

New Delhi quadrupled fines for those without masks in a desperate effort to stave off the dual scourge of the virus and winter pollution enveloping the megacity of nearly 22 million people.

And Mexico became the fourth country Thursday to see its death toll breach 100,000.

Worldwide deaths are approaching 1.4 million and total infections nearing 57 million -- although the true numbers are unknown since countries have different reporting methods and many cases go undetected.

Governments are now pinning their hopes on a vaccine that can save them from business closures that force families to seek dwindling government assistance -- and stay at home orders that put people's mental health under severe strain.

The first tangible signs of relief could come yesterday when Pfizer and BioNTech file an emergency use authorisation request with the US Food and Drug Administration.

"The documents will be finalised today and tomorrow and submitted to the FDA," BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin told AFP on Thursday.

The scientific head of the US operation to develop a vaccine said the final green light would probably come in December.

The BioNTech/Pfizer shot and another one being developed by the US firm Moderna have taken the lead in the global chase for a vaccine.

EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the European bloc could also approve both before the end of the year.

A separate candidate vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca has shown to be safe and effective in a smaller study of order adults.

The head of an Indian company contracted to make AstraZeneca Plc's COVID vaccine said it could deliver it to health care workers and elderly Indians by January as the country's caseload of infections crossed nine million yesterday.

The UK government is hoping that its production can be ramped up quickly if it passes its final hurdle in a phase 3 trial and is approved.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock yesterday said Britain could ease stringent Covid-19 rules to allow families to gather for Christmas as signs indicate that coronavirus cases are starting to flatten as a result of current lockdowns.

But the unprecedented speed at which the vaccines are being developed has raised some alarm.

China's Sinopharm yesterday revealed that it has already given its experimental vaccine to nearly a million people -- including state employees and students heading to study abroad.

Top US infectious disease official Anthony Fauci sought to dispel concerns about the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna during a rare briefing by the White House task force.

"It was a reflection of the extraordinary scientific advances in these types of vaccines," Fauci said.

The World Health Organization yesterday cautioned that the anti-viral drug remdesivir that was administered to US President Donald Trump when he came down with the virus in October had "no important effect" on survival chances.

US infections numbers have sufficiently alarmed authorities to request that people stay at home for next week's Thanksgiving holiday -- normally the time when people travel from coast to coast to be with their families.

But not everyone is happy about the new rules.

More than 13,000 people have signed an online "Keep NYC Schools Open" petition after the city closed schools for its 1.1 million students but left open its bars and gyms.'

"Indoor dining remains open. Gyms remain open. Nail salons and barbershops remain open. Only schools are threatened with closure. This is nonsensical," the petition says.

California will also impose a 10 pm to 5 am curfew from Saturday -- a measure that mirrors one that Istanbul will start imposing for its 15 million residents on weekends starting Friday night.