The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 7,032,595, including 203,746 fatalities and 2,727,335 recoveries.
India comes second in how many cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, with more than 5.81 million patients.
Brazil is third with 4,689,613 cases.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has ordered for a toughening of the coronavirus-related restrictions, including the introduction of fines for non-compliance, amid the continuous spread of the infection, Iran's government said on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, Rouhani told the Iranian response center that he had instructed the government to put together a special plan of action for countering COVID-19 and adopt a set of penalties for citizens who, specifically, do not wear face masks as prescribed.
"After being approved in the upcoming meeting of the National Coronavirus Headquarters, this plan and pertinent regulations will be put in force first in Greater Tehran and next in other major cities across the country," Rouhani said, as quoted in a press release on the government's website.
The Iranian president also greenlighted local governors to "shut down any places or businesses in their provinces for a week if necessary."
As reported by Iranian state news agency IRNA, as part of the toughened health protocols, all religious activities for the Arbaʽeen holiday — when Shia Muslims commemorate Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of prophet Muhammad, who was killed in a battle — will also be canceled.
According to the latest situation report by the Iranian Ministry of Health, close to 440,000 coronavirus cases have been confirmed as of Saturday, including more than 25,000 deaths and almost 370,000 recoveries.
The Armenian Health Ministry on Saturday announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire some 600,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine at a cost of over $6.3 million.
"The Ministry of Health of Armenia signed an agreement with the COVAX Facility to purchase a vaccine against COVID-19. We plan to purchase about 600,000 doses of the vaccine for nearly 300,000 people at risk — two doses each. The total financial cost of purchasing the vaccine is approximately $6.33 million. The average cost of one dose is about $10.55, which may decrease as a result of negotiations," the Ministry of Health in a statement posted on its website.
The first batch is expected to be delivered in early 2021, soon after the vaccine passes all trials and is officially registered.
The COVAX Facility is co-led by Gavi, the WHO, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and aims to guarantee free and fair access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries in the world.
Armenia has registered just over 49,000 cases with 948 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, with most cases infections coming over the summer. As many other nations, the daily infections rates in the country have been creeping back up.
The leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) has issued a new order temporarily banning mass events and citizens' access to state bodies and enterprises amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, according to a statement issued on Saturday.
The new changes were implemented as part of an amendment made by Denis Pushilin, the leader of the DNR, to the republic's decree of 14 March that introduced a regime of high alert in connection with the global pandemic.
"According to the changes, the document is supplemented with a subparagraph that prohibits the personal reception of citizens in state bodies, enterprises, institutions, organizations, and the off-site reception of citizens in state bodies, local administrations, and to lawmakers of the People's Council," the statement read.
Additionally, mass gatherings of people have also been prohibited as parts of efforts to curb the spread of the disease, according to the statement.
The republic's coronavirus response center also said that restrictions have been put into place at universities in the DNR as the majority of students have switched to remote classes.
"At the moment, students have switched to distance learning," a member of the response center told reporters.
The response center added that it has the necessary experience and resources to manage localized outbreaks and prevent imported cases of the coronavirus disease.
Since the start of the outbreak, 3,284 cases of COVID-19 have been registered in the DNR by the republic's Ministry of Health. Over the past day, 73 new positive tests were confirmed by public health officials.
Russia’s Vector research centre plans to release two variants of a COVID-19 vaccine into circulation, said director of the center Rinat Maksyutov.
"We have developed vaccines for the prevention of COVID-19 on the basis of six independent technological platforms. We have chosen two most promising vaccine options that we intend to release into civic circulation," Maksyutov said in a television appearance on Russia's Rossiya-1 channel.
Russia has registered 7,523 new cases of the coronavirus disease over the preceding 24 hours, up from 7,212 a day earlier, which brings the cumulative total to 1,143,571, the federal response centre said on Saturday.
The largest increase was identified in Moscow, the Russian capital, where 1,792 new positive tests were registered. Additionally, 232 new cases were identified in St. Petersburg and 204 more were found in the Moscow region.
The response center also reported 169 coronavirus-related fatalities over the last 24 hours, which brings the total death toll to 20,225, and 6,004 people were confirmed to have recovered from the disease over the last day, bringing the total number of discharges to 940,150.
The health minister of the Australian state of Victoria, Jenny Mikakos, has resigned from her position on Saturday one day after the state's premier, Daniel Andrews, said that she was partially to blame for the failure of a government COVID-19 hotel quarantine scheme.
"I have today written to the Governor of Victoria to resign my commissions as a Minister effective today. I will also be resigning from the Parliament. I am deeply sorry for the situation that Victorians find themselves in. In good conscience, I do not believe that my actions led to them," Mikakos wrote in a media statement published on Twitter.
Mikakos's resignation comes one day after Andrews said that she was partially to blame for a hotel quarantine scheme in the state of Victoria that went vastly overbudget and used private security agencies, rather than government security forces, to guard the facilities.
"I have never wanted to leave a job unfinished but in light of the Premier's statement to the Board of Inquiry and the fact that there are elements in it that I strongly disagree with, I believe that I cannot continue to serve in his Cabinet," the former health minister said.
Victoria is Australia's COVID-19 hotspot, and as of Friday, 20,118 of Australia's roughly 27,000 coronavirus disease cases have been reported in the state.
Dedicated quarantine hotels were established to house arrivals from overseas who had returned to Victoria for a 14-day period of self-isolation.
ndia has confirmed 85,362 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours thus continuing to register the world's largest daily increase in the number of COVID-19 patients, with the total number of those infected having reached 5,903,933, the country's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.
The death toll from the disease has reached 93,379 people, with 1,089 new fatalities recorded over the past day. More than 4.84 million people have recovered in India since the start of the epidemic.
India comes second in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, following the United States with more than 7.02 million COVID-19 patients.
A day earlier, India registered 86,052 new COVID-19 cases, with 1,141 fatalities.
