At the moment, over 42.1 million people are infected around the globe. The list of the most affected countries is headed by the US with almost 8.5 million cases and 224,000 deaths, while India is second with 7.7 million infected and 117,000 fatalities. Brazil rounds out the top three, with 5.3 million cases and 156,000 deaths.
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A top political aide to US Vice President Mike Pence has tested positive for COVID-19, ABC News reports.
Marty Obst tested positive for the coronavirus last week, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News on Saturday.
According to ABC, Obst is an outside adviser and not a government employee. He was last seen at a fundraiser event attended by both Pence and US President Donald Trump on 15 October.
Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19 at the Walter Reed Military Medical Center on 2 October, not long after announcing on Twitter that he and his wife Melania had tested positive for the coronavirus.
That same week, Pence and second lady Karen Pence tested negative for the coronavirus, according to Pence’s spokesman Devin O’Malley.
White House Physician, Dr. Sean Conley, announced on 12 October that Trump had tested negative for COVID-19 on consecutive days.
First Lady Melania Trump announced last week that the First Family’s son Barron, 14, had contracted COVID-19 but exhibited no symptoms and subsequently tested negative.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Colombia has become the eighth country in the world to pass the one million coronavirus cases mark, according to data from the country’s Health Ministry.
In the past 24 hours, Colombia confirmed 8,769 new COVID-19 cases and 198 new coronavirus-related deaths, the health ministry said on Saturday. The country’s total coronavirus death toll stands at 30,000, while the total number of confirmed cases is at 1,007,711.
Colombia currently has over 68,008 active coronavirus cases, while more than 90,300 people have recovered from COVID-19 in the country.
Earlier this week, Argentina, Spain, and France all surpassed the one million COVID-19 cases mark amid the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. The United States has the greatest number of confirmed coronavirus cases of all the countries in the world (over 8.5 million).
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Another 68 coronavirus patients have died in Moscow in the past 24 hours, bringing the relevant toll to 6,380, the Russian capital’s COVID-19 response center said on Saturday.
"Sixty-eight patients, who were diagnosed with pneumonia and tested positive for the coronavirus infection, have died in Moscow," the center said.
A day earlier, the city reported 63 fatalities.
Spain is set to hold a special cabinet meeting on Sunday to discuss a new state of emergency after a number of regions across the country called the central government to allow them to impose curfews to help tackle the surge in coronavirus cases.
Spain has recorded the highest number of COVID-19 infections in Western Europe to date. The total cases amounted to 1,046,132 on Friday, with the overall death toll nearing 35,000.
The corona tally across the country has reached record heights with more than 83,000 infections reported in a single day. As of Saturday, the US death toll, meanwhile, has grown to 223,995, according to the COVID-19 Dashboard published by Johns Hopkins University.
The seven-day rolling average for new confirmed cases in the country surpassed 61,140 Thursday, compared with 44,647 two weeks ago. The absolute record to date was reached on 22 July, when the rolling average was 67,293 in the midst of a summer outbreak largely due to extreme surges of the virus incidence in Florida, Texas, Arizona and California.
The UK government data shows that 23,012 new coronavirus cases were registered in the country on Saturday, up from 20,530 on Friday.
The Muslim Public Affairs Council, Religious Freedom Institute’s Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team, and Asma Uddin stated in a joint brief that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have discriminated against Jews by prohibiting in-person instruction at Jewish schools throughout the city.
BERLIN (Sputnik) - COVID-19 infections in Germany are spreading more rapidly than at the beginning of the year, which indicates that the country is yet to face its most difficult months, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday during her regular television address to the nation.
“We are in a very serious phase of the COVID pandemic. The number of new cases is spiraling upwards, day by day. The pandemic is spreading again rapidly, even faster than at the start more than six months ago”, Merkel said.
She added that for Germany “the comparatively relaxed summer is over” and it depends on citizens’ actions how they will spend the winter and celebrate Christmas.
Merkel called on Germans to refrain from travelling, outdoor meetings, and activities.
“Please, do not travel unless it is absolutely essential. Please, do not celebrate unless it is absolutely essential. Please, stay at home, in your own town, wherever possible”, the chancellor said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia has registered 16,521 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, down from yesterday's 17,340, taking the cumulative total to 1,497,167 the country's coronavirus response centre said on Saturday.
"In the past 24 hours, Russia has confirmed 16,521 COVID-19 cases in 85 regions, of which 4,255 (25.8 percent) were detected with people showing no clinical symptoms", the response centre said, adding that the case count has reached 1,497,167.
The largest increase was identified in Moscow, where 4,453 new positive tests were registered (down from 5,478 yesterday). A total of 713 new cases were recorded in St. Petersburg (up from 710 yesterday) and 480 cases were confirmed in the Moscow Region (up from 472 yesterday).
"President Andrzej Duda was tested for coronavirus yesterday. The result is positive", Spychalski said on Twitter.
Szanowni Państwo, zgodnie z zaleceniami wczoraj Prezydent @AndrzejDuda miał wykonany test na obecność koronawirusa. Wynik okazał się pozytywny. Prezydent czuje się dobrze. Jesteśmy w stałym kontakcie z odpowiednimi służbami medycznymi.
— Błażej Spychalski (@spychalski_b) October 24, 2020
