Americans were facing a growing raft of coronavirus restrictions, even as pharma giant Pfizer and partner BioNTech prepared to file an emergency request to roll out their vaccine.

California announced a night-time curfew and authorities urged people everywhere not to travel for Thanksgiving as the country was hit by a spike of more than 2,200 deaths — the worst daily toll since May.

An emergency use authorisation request for the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was expected to be filed with the US Food and Drug Administration, the government and BioNTech's co-founder said.

Health Secretary Alex Azar told a White House briefing that the application was coming in the next day, confirming a timeline BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin shared with AFP.