The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 10,488,531, including 242,310 fatalities and 3,997,304 recoveries.
India and Brazil, which rank next in the list, have reported 8,683,916 and 5,781,582 cases, respectively.
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The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Mexico is nearing 1 million, while the death toll is close to 100,000 people, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said.
He also said on late Friday that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases had increased by 5,658 to 997,393 within the past 24 hours, while the number of fatalities had risen by 568 to 97,835.
Mexico is likely to become the 11th nation with more than 1 million coronavirus cases.
The United States has registered more than 177,000 new coronavirus cases within the past 24 hours marking the largest daily increase in any country since the start of the epidemic, The Washington Post newspaper reported.
The number of new cases has reportedly risen in all 50 US states, with at least 10 states reporting the record daily increase within the past day.
The United States remains the worst-hit nation both in terms of the number of cases (over 10.7 million) and fatalities (more than 244,000), according to Johns Hopkins University.
The United States hopes to immunize 20 million residents in December and at least 25 million each month in 2021, Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Moncef Slaoui said in a news conference at the White House.
"We plan to have enough vaccine doses available for use in the US population to immunize about 20 million individuals in the month of December and another 25 to 30 million per month on an ongoing basis," Slaoui said on Friday. "As of the month February or March, if we have more vaccine approved...we may be able to immunize a larger number of Americans on an ongoing basis per month."
Slaoui said he hopes two coronavirus vaccines in the final phase of clinical trials developed by Pfizer and Moderna will soon be approved for emergency use in December.
President Donald Trump said a vaccine will be more widely available for the US public by April of 2021.
The United States has reported more than 10.6 million coronavirus cases and more than 243,400 virus-related deaths as of Friday afternoon, according to the latest data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The US authorities may approve for emergency use two coronavirus vaccines in December, Operation Warp Speed chief Moncef Slaoui said during a press briefing at the White House.
"The two vaccines that are completing their Phase 3 trial are likely to be… [filed with] the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] for potential emergency use authorization within few weeks and, hopefully, if approved, they could be used for immunization in the month of December," Slaoui told reporters on Friday evening.
Three US states of California, Oregon and Washington - all on the United States’ West Coast - issued new travel advisories urging residents to avoid so-called "non-essential" travel and to self-quarantine for two weeks due to novel coronavirus outbreaks, California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said in a statement.
"The travel advisories urge against non-essential out-of-state travel, ask people to self-quarantine for 14 days after arriving from another state or country and encourage residents to stay local," the statement said on Friday afternoon.
The governors of the three states recommended that residents limit interactions to immediate households and travel only for the purposes of work or study as well as for critical infrastructure and economic support and medical care, the statement said.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown said the coronavirus does not stop at state lines, noting that hospitals across the West Coast are stretched to capacity and the authorities must take steps to ensure travellers are not bringing this disease home with them.
"If you do not need to travel, you shouldn’t," Brown said.
Chile's health minister told Reuters that Latin America is likely to face a second wave of coronavirus.
Moscow has registered 69 deaths of patients infected with COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the Russian capital's death toll to 7,712, the city's coronavirus response centre said in a statement on Friday.
"Another 69 patients, who were diagnosed with pneumonia and tested positive for the coronavirus infection, died in Moscow," the centre said.
In the previous day, 70 people infected with the coronavirus died in Moscow.
The breakaway region of Transnistria has registered record 248 cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, the regional response center said on Friday.
"A total of 996 samples were sent for research on Thursday. Tests for the previous days remained in operation in laboratories. According to the data, 248 new cases of coronavirus infection were recorded," the statement said.
A total of 205 patients were discharged from hospitals and two patients died over the given period.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Transnistrian authorities have recorded 8,847 cases of the infection and 184 fatalities.
German BioNTech biopharmaceutical company which teamed up with US Pfizer for the development of a vaccine against COVID-19 told Sputnik on Friday that it had not yet received the information as to when vaccination will start in Germany.
"We do not name the deadlines, because we do not influence the work of the regulator, we can only submit an application," the company' spokesperson said.
Earlier in November, Pfizer and BioNTech said that the third phase of their COVID-19 vaccine trial provided the evidence of its ability to prevent the infection. The companies added that the vaccine's efficacy rate was above 90 percent. The trial showed that only 94 participants out of 43,500 developed the virus. The pharmaceutical giants expect the process of the vaccines' registration under Emergency Use Authorization to start in the United States in November.
US President Donald Trump will update the nation on his administration's plan to produce and deliver the novel coronavirus vaccine, the White House said in an updated schedule for Friday.
"The President delivers an update on Operation Warp Speed at 4:00 p.m. [9:00 p.m. GMT]," the schedule said.
Operation Warp Speed, led by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Defense Department, is funding multiple vaccine candidates with the goal of producing an initial batch of 300 million doses by January 2021.
Achieving collective immunity against the novel coronavirus is unrealistic and unscientific without mass vaccination, Zhong Nanshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the director of the National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, said on Friday.
"Natural immunity is unrealistic, unscientific and inhuman. Achieving collective immunity requires mass vaccination," Zhong at a virtual Russian-Chinese symposium.
According to the Chinese epidemiologist, proper collective immunity can be reached in one to two years given effective international cooperation.
In August, WHO COVID-19 technical lead Maria van Kerkhove said that simply waiting for the herd immunity to occur naturally is a "dangerous" endeavor fraught with scores of deaths, while vaccination is a safer and more effective path.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Turkey has risen by 3,045 to 407,939 within the past 24 hours marking the largest daily increase since late April, the Turkish Health Ministry said on Friday.
"Today, 3,045 new cases have been registered, the total number of those infected has reached 407,939. Ninety three patients have died today, the [total] death toll amounts to 11,326 people," the statement said.
The number of recoveries has increased by 2,010 to 348,804 over the same period of time.
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said earlier that the coronavirus pandemic in Turkey had reached its second peak. In recent weeks, the country repeatedly registered record high numbers of daily infections and fatalities from coronavirus-related coronavirus.
The completion of clinical trials of Russia's third COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Chumakov Institute is expected in mid-December, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said.
"Now it is undergoing clinical trials. We expect that in mid-December they should complete and submit documents to us in order to assess the quality of the immunity being formed," Murashko said in an interview with the Rossiya 1 broadcaster, answering when the Chumakov Institute's vaccine might be registered.
A nighttime curfew has been imposed in Montenegro due to the coronavirus outbreak, the country's Health Minister Kenan Hrapovic announced on Friday.
"It is prohibited to leave home from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. [20:00 - 04:00 GMT]. Working hours of shops, cafes and restaurants is limited until 8 p.m. Travel between cities is prohibited on weekends. Also prohibited are group gatherings of more than four people. Religious ceremonies are allowed only in the absence of people," the minister said at a briefing of the National Coordination Body for Infectious Diseases.
Hrapovic said under the new restrictions, people can still visit cafes and restaurants in the 7 a.m. - 8 p.m. time span, but with a face mask is mandatory and can only be taken off during eating and drinking. As per the new assembly limit, one table must accommodate no more than four people, with a distance of 2 meters (6.5 feet) between them.
The new set of rules will remain in effect until December 1.
As of Friday, the Montenegrin health authorities reported a total of 26,106 coronavirus cases, including 377 deaths, of which 601 cases and 13 deaths were reported within the last 24 hours.
MOSCOW, November 13 (Sputnik) - The Group of Twenty (G20) said on Friday it has put together the terms of debt restructuring for low-income countries struggling with the regular schedule due to coronavirus-related disruptions.
"Given the scale of the COVID-19 crisis, the significant debt vulnerabilities and deteriorating outlook in many low-income countries, we recognize that debt treatments beyond the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) may be required on a case-by-case basis. In this context, we endorse the 'Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the DSSI,'" G20 said in a press release.
Under the new framework, the restructuring process will be initiated at the request of a debtor country. The eligible debt includes all public and publicly guaranteed debts which have an original maturity of more than one year. The repayment period will be six years, of which one year counts for a grace period.
The organization also let all DSSI-eligible countries under the previous DSSI Term Sheet from April 2020 to remain eligible for an extension until June 30, 2021 as long as they were recognized as so far fully compliant with its conditions.
"We will also examine by the time of the 2021 IMF/WBG Spring meetings if the economic and financial situation requires to extend further the DSSI by another 6 months," the press release read.
G20 said the new framework had been endorsed by the Paris Club, an unofficial group comprising the largest creditor countries.
German bioengineering company Biontech said on Friday that it had not yet received information from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on when the COVID-19 vaccine would be registered in the EU.
"In Germany, this [vaccine registration process] is going through the European Medicines Agency, EMA, and we do not have information there yet," the company' spokesperson said, adding that "in the US, we can submit all data to the FDA as early as this month."
The Mainz-based company and US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer previously announced a successful Phase 3 clinical trial of a COVID vaccine, expected to be registered in the US in November, the company said. The application will be sent to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) next week.
According to the release, the third phase of clinical trials of the BNT162b2 vaccine proved to be more than 90 percent effective.
The heads of government from Germany, Poland and Hungary have held a discussion on a mechanism that allows access to the European Union's COVID-19 pandemic recovery fund on the condition that governments respect the rule of law, Steffen Seibert, spokesman of German Government, said on Friday.
The mechanism in question was implemented by the European Parliament on November 5, prompting opposition from Poland and Hungary, which had been repeatedly accused by Brussels of violating rule of law principle. On Thursday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Poland would not accept the mechanism as it could result in double standards applied to different EU members. He threatened to veto the new European budget if the regulation remained in force.
"I can confirm that the Federal Chancellor yesterday discussed these complicated issues with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, as well as with Hungarian Prime Minister Orban. This discussion was confidential, I will not comment on its contents, but I can hint that the government, the presidency of the European Council are working to make this compromise possible," Seibert said at a briefing.
According to the spokesman, Germany is looking for a solution, which will satisfy the European parliament, as well as the European Council member countries.
"On the table is the timely application of the funds, which high-burden countries are waiting for," Seibert added.
On July 21, EU leaders agreed to establish a 1.8 trillion euro ($2.1 trillion) recovery fund to support the European countries hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Israel has signed a contract with US pharmaceutical company Pfizer to procure vaccine doses sufficient for 4 million of its citizens, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday.
On Thursday, Netanyahu said that the supplies of Pfizer's vaccine to Israel could begin as early as January next year.
"This is a great day for the State of Israel and a great day on the way to our victory over the coronavirus. At these moments, we are signing the agreement with Pfizer to receive eight million doses of vaccine for four million Israeli citizens," the prime minister said in a statement, as quoted by his press service.
The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses per person, as specified in the press release.
With regards to the time frame, Netanyahu confirmed that hopes are that the supply will begin in January and "increase in the following months," subject to getting the approval of health authorities of both the United States and Israel.
"We have more agreements with additional promising companies on the way to receiving additional millions of vaccines for the citizens of Israel," Netanyahu added.
Earlier this month, the Jerusalem-located Hadassah Medical Center, one of Israel's most authoritative medical facilities, said it had ordered 1.5 million doses of Russia's coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V. Both, the Russian vaccine and the one produced by Pfizer are currently undergoing phase 3 clinical trials.
Serbian authorities are planning to introduce new measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the coming days in the light of the worsening epidemiological situation, Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar said on Friday.
The Serbian parliament previously approved amendments to the law on infectious diseases. Violations of the health authorities' instructions will now be punishable by fines, for failing to ensure proper health protection for fellow citizens.
"Since yesterday, we have had proposals for new measures, and in a day or two we will come up with a new position. This should be the common opinion of all members of the crisis center on fight against COVID-19," Loncar said as quoted by the ministerial press service.
On Wednesday, the number of new coronavirus cases per day in Serbia for the first time reached 3,536 people. To date, Serbia has confirmed 73,765 COVID-19 cases, with a death toll of 955.
Over $2 billion has been raised via the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) facility toward securing access to coronavirus vaccines for low- and middle- income countries, the Gavi vaccine alliance said in a press release on Friday.
The latest contribution in the cumulative amount of $360 million came from the European Commission, France, Spain, South Korea and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
"This means that over US$ 2 billion has been raised for the Gavi COVAX AMC so far, thanks to contributions from other sovereign donors, the private sector, and philanthropic sources. This funding will allow COVAX AMC to reserve and access 1 billion doses for AMC-eligible economies," the press release read.
Gavi said that another $5 billion will be required to be raised during the next year to procure enough doses as in demand.
"We are incredibly grateful for the support received so far. This vital funding not only helps us ensure lower-income economies aren’t left at the back of the queue when safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines become available, it will also play a vital role in ending the acute phase of this pandemic worldwide," Gavi CEO Seth Berkley was quoted as saying.
According to the press release, there are 92 low- and middle- income countries participating in the COVAX facility who will be financially aided to afford vaccines, while 94 higher-income participants will pay for themselves.
Beijing is ready to create all necessary conditions for the visit of the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency Anvisa's delegation to China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine production site, following the death in Brazil of a volunteer during the vaccine trial, Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said on Friday.
"China is ready to create the necessary conditions for the visit of the delegation of representatives of the Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency," Wenbin said at a briefing.
The spokesman also said that China is leading the world when it comes to COVID-19 vaccine development and has collaborated with many countries, including Brazil.
On Thursday, Wenbin mentioned that four different Chinese vaccines are on phase 3 trials in various countries, meaning that they can be characterized as safe.
The German government has put Sweden and Canada on its list of regions with a high risk of COVID-19 transmission over the growing number of new coronavirus cases there, the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's national institute for disease control, said on Friday.
Apart from these countries, the list also includes some regions of Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Norway, the United Kingdom, Finland and French Polynesia.
The new travel advisory will take effect starting at midnight on November 15.
The countries' and regions' inclusion on the list means that German citizens should refrain from unnecessary trips to these areas — such as tourist trips — and undergo a test or 14-day quarantine upon returning home.
Canada has confirmed a total of 282,577 cases of the coronavirus so far, including 226,775 recoveries and 10,768 deaths. Meanwhile, Sweden's tally has reached 177,355 with 6,164 patients having died.
Germany is unlikely to see on Monday a scaleback in restrictions on public life that were imposed in early November to limit the spread of coronavirus, a government spokesman said on Friday.
"As things stand now, there should be no expectations of easing on Monday," Steffen Seibert told reporters at a daily press conference.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to meet with regional governors on Monday to assess progress in the fight against the pandemic and set out further measures.
Seibert said that easing the lockdown before the seven-day incidence nears 50 new infections per 100,000 population would risk undoing the gains made so far. Germany has reported a record 23,542 rise in daily cases despite going into a second lockdown on November 2.
Japan has registered a new single-day record of 1,685 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, taking the overall tally to 116,220, the NHK broadcaster reported on Friday, citing the authorities.
The previous record of 1,634 new cases was confirmed a day ago. NHK's cumulative tally includes 712 cases related to the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
At the same time, the coronavirus-related death toll increased by nine over the given period and reached 1,895.
The broadcaster also reported, citing the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, that the Japanese capital confirmed 374 new cases, bringing the city’s total to over 34,000. Tokyo is registering over 300 cases for the third day in a raw.
To date, Japan has registered over more than 101,000 recoveries.
The high-risk groups will be the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Poland, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Friday.
According to Morawiecki, Poland wants to get the vaccine as soon as it becomes available and is already making logistical arrangements for that.
"We want to start vaccinations from high-risk groups," Morawiecki said after the meeting with the representatives of US pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
He clarified that the risk-group included pensioners, doctors, and representatives of law enforcement agencies.
On Tuesday, Polish Health Minister Andrzej Niedzielski said that the Polish government is not going to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for citizens.
Poland counts on obtaining a vaccine under a specialized European program.
California has become the second state in the United States to have over a million detected COVID-19 cases, the latest data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center showed on Friday.
According to the university, 1,006,099 COVID-19 cases have been recorded in California, with a death toll of 18,141.
Texas was the first US state to cross one million cases. At the time of reporting, 1,024,073 COVID-19 cases have been identified there and 19,474 people have died due to the disease.
To date, the US has confirmed over 10.5 million coronavirus cases, with a total death toll of 242,430.
The healthcare system in Russia is successfully withstanding the burdens of the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic in the country and there is currently no need to introduce a full lockdown, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
"Right now, we are proceeding from the statements of [Moscow Mayor] Sergei Sobyanin, and the [Russian] President [Vladimir Putin] has also talked about this, that the level of mobilization of our healthcare system, even with the failures that we have talked about, allows us to introduce restrictive measures to decrease the infection rate among the population in such a way so as not to suffocate the economy," Peskov said in an interview with RT Russia.
The Kremlin spokesman added that the restrictive measures will vary depending on the region, since local governors have special powers granted to them amid the pandemic this past spring.
According to Peskov, Russia will start COVID-19 vaccine production within several weeks or even days, with mass immunization expected to start in the coming months.
Peskov’s comments came as Russia registered a new single-day record of 21,983 COVID-19 cases reported over a 24-hour period on Friday. The previous daily record of 21,798 coronavirus cases was registered on Monday.
The Moscow mayor announced new coronavirus restrictions on Tuesday, saying that the Russian capital was suspending all cultural events that could attract large crowds and was restricting the work of night clubs and restaurants. The new restrictions are coming into force on Friday, 13 November and will be in force until 15 January.
According to Sobyanin, the coronavirus situation in Moscow could get worse in the coming weeks.
Nicaragua will be able to obtain a $50 million credit from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) to purchase vaccines against COVID-19, digital gazette Informe Pastran has said.
"To expand the scope of the COVID-19 Emergency Program the CABEI provided an additional $400 million ... to buy vaccines to immunize the population against COVID-19. This mentioned sum consists of a credit line of 50 million for each Central American country, to provide loans to both public and private sectors," the document said on Thursday.
According to the text, CABEI will issue bonds for the COVID-19 vaccine that will allow for supplying all Central American countries with the vaccine amid the global pandemic. Money obtained by the bond issue will provide access to the coronavirus vaccine once it is available.
At the beginning of the year, CABEI created an emergency program to provide financial resources to the countries of the region to detect and prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease and carry out activities of COVID-19 treatment.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex has announced that the nationwide stay-at-home regime will remain in effect amid still disturbing indicators of the COVID-19 virus' evolution in the country.
"Together with the President of the Republic [Emmanuel Macron], we decided this morning in the Council of defense and national security to keep unchanged, at least for the next fifteen days, the rules of lockdown intended to fight against # COVID19," Castex tweeted late on Thursday.
The prime minister said that the impact from the second coronavirus outbreak is tough, specifying in a separate tweet that up to 500 COVID-19 patients have died each day over the past week, which makes each one in four of the deaths in France due to the pandemic. Moreover, he added, current numbers of coronavirus hospitalizations have surpassed the April peak, with one hospitalization confirmed each half a minute and intensive care cases linked to the epidemic occurring every three minutes.
Castex noted that over the past week, the infection rate has decreased by 16 percent, marking "the first expected effects" of the state counter-virus strategy. However, he urged the nation to remain cautious until the "positive" trend of the slowing pandemic "is confirmed over time".
The government has imposed the general lockdown on 30 October in the wake of a sharp resurgence in COVID-19 cases over the month. While the record daily high since the beginning of the pandemic has been reached on 7 November, counting nearly 87,000 cases, new restrictions forced closures of non-essential businesses, stores, and public places.
As of Friday, France has confirmed 1,915,282 coronavirus cases and 42,599 related fatalities.
Russia has registered a new single-day record of 21,983 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, up from 21,608 yesterday, bringing the total to 1,880,551, the federal response centre said on Friday.
The previous record of 21,798 COVID-19 cases was registered on Monday.
"In the past 24 hours, Russia has confirmed 21,983 COVID-19 cases in 85 regions, of which 5,494 (25 percent) were detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms," the response centre said, adding that the case count has reached 1,880,551.
Moscow reported 5,974 COVID-19 cases, down from 5,997 yesterday. This is the highest daily increase of all Russia's regions, followed by St. Petersburg with 1,756 cases (up from 1,667 yesterday) and Moscow region with 760 cases (up from 729 yesterday).
The response center reported 411 coronavirus fatalities, down from the record 439 yesterday, raising the country’s death toll to 32,443.
As many as 18,735 coronavirus patients were confirmed to have recovered, down from 18,811 yesterday, bringing the total to 1,406,903.
"I'll be saying more about the international side of that very soon," transport minister Grant Shapps said.
The V451 coronavirus vaccine that is being developed in Australia could become available to the public as early as in July, 2021, Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said.
"CSL [biotechnology company] will now move for regular pre-approval to commence phase 3 clinical trials before the end of this year. And that’s an extraordinary development, it means that this vaccine will potentially be available, subject to the results of those trials, for delivery to Australians early in the third quarter of 2021," Hunt said on Friday, as broadcast by 7News Australia on Twitter.
According to the health minister, phase one clinical trials have shown that the Queensland-made COVID-19 vaccine is safe.
"What it shows is that we are ahead of schedule," Hunt said, commenting on the planned start of phase 3 clinical trials of the V451 coronavirus vaccine, which is being manufactured in Australia at CSL's biologics facility in Victoria.
Meanwhile, ABC Radio Brisbane reported citing the health minister on Friday, that the vaccine could become available to health workers and the elderly in Australia as early as March next year.
India has confirmed 44,879 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number of those infected having reached 8,728,795, the country's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Friday.
The death toll from the disease has reached 128,668 people, with 547 new fatalities being recorded over the past day. More than 8.11 million people have recovered in India since the start of the outbreak.
India comes second in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, following the United States with more than 10.54 million COVID-19 patients.
A day earlier, India registered 47,905 new COVID-19 cases, with 550 fatalities.
