The United States remains the most infected country, with over 7.7 million cases and 214,367 deaths registered so far.
India has confirmed 73,272 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 7 million.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Moscow has registered 34 deaths of patients infected with COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the Russian capital's death toll to 5,629, the city's coronavirus response center said in a statement on Sunday.
"Another 34 patients, who were diagnosed with pneumonia and tested positive for the coronavirus infection, died in Moscow," the center said.
In the previous day, 35 people infected with the coronavirus died in Moscow.
The United Kingdom also recorded 65 new fatalities, according to the latest figures.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen welcomed China’s move to join the UN-backed COVAX initiative to ensure equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
Earlier in the weak, World Health Organisation (WHO) Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced that China was joining the initiative along with South Korea and the Pacific island nation of Nauru.
I welcome China’s willingness to join #COVAX.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) October 11, 2020
We are all in this together. Multilateralism is key to reaching our #GlobalGoal of access to vaccines everywhere, for everyone who needs them.
We look forward to working with China and other partners on this.
The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell also welcomed the announcement on Twitter by saying that "only a truly global effort and commitment can win the fight against the pandemic."
COVAX is co-led by the WHO, Gavi vaccine alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. It is part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator under the WHO auspices to bring together vaccine developers from different countries in a common quest for a safe COVID-19 vaccine.
Researchers in the United Kingdom will recruit some 10,000 people to partake in a study to establish whether the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine against tuberculosis can help in fighting off COVID-19, media reported Sunday.
According to Sky News, the study will be trialed on health care workers and home care employees and will be led by the University of Exeter.
The UK researchers will coordinate with similar studies underway in Australia, the Netherlands, Spain and Brazil the news outlet reported.
About 100 million babies are immunized with BCG vaccine every year and studies have shown that it boosts immunity in a generalized way, not only against tuberculosis.
While most nations have a blanket vaccination policy for all newborns, western European nations, Australia and New Zealand have suspended mandatory immunizations due to low rates of tuberculosis in the general population.
The rules and guidelines the prime minister will set out tomorrow will explain how we will treat travel between different places ... but we've always been clear that essential travel for work, for education, for important life events needs to be preserved whenever we can do," housing minister Robert Jenrick said.
The number of new coronavirus cases in Russia has been exceeding the record registered in May for the third day in a row, with 13,634 cases recorded over the past 24 hours, the response centre said on Sunday, adding that the total number of confirmed cases has reached 1,298,718.
The previous record, 12,846 new cases registered in a day, was confirmed on Saturday.
"In the past 24 hours, Russia has confirmed 13,634 COVID-19 cases in 85 regions, of which 3.587 (26.3 percent) were detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms," the response centre said in a statement.
The largest increase was detected in Moscow, where 4,501 new cases were registered. A total of 528 new cases were recorded in St. Petersburg and 419 cases were confirmed in the Moscow Region.
The response center reported 149 new coronavirus-related fatalities, raising Russia's total death toll to 22,597.
The total number of recoveries increased by 4,240 over the past day and reached 1,020,442.
The UK has reached a "tipping point" in its coronavirus epidemic similar to the first wave, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, England's deputy chief medical officer said.
"Sadly, just as night follows day, increases in deaths will now follow on in the next few weeks," he said.
