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Chairs are stacked outside a bistro as the Quebec government has ordered all restaurants, bars and casinos to close for 28 days effective midnight September 30 as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) numbers continue to rise in Montreal, Quebec, Canada September 29, 2020.  - Sputnik International

COVID-19 Live Updates: Canada Surpasses 10,000 COVID-19 Deaths, Nearly 223,000 Cases Reported

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The global death toll from the coronavirus infection has topped 1.158 million, over 43.4 million cases have been detected, and over 29 million of those have recovered, according to Baltimore, Maryland's Johns Hopkins University, which tracks and compiles data from national and local authorities, the media and other sources.

The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 8,702,414, including 225,697 fatalities and 3,460,455 recoveries.

India and Brazil, which come next on the list, have reached 7,909,959 and 5,409,854 infections in total, respectively.

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02:26 GMT 28.10.2020

The French authorities are considering ​​re-introducing the self-isolation regime in the country for a month amid the deteriorating epidemiological situation, BFMTV reported citing its sources.

The decision is to be confirmed during Wednesday's second defence council meeting. Quarantine may be imposed as early as October 29. It may have a more flexible framework than the self-isolation regime introduced in March.

French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to make a statement on Wednesday evening. 

01:59 GMT 28.10.2020

The Cuban regulatory agency has approved Phase 1 of clinical trials of the second Cuban vaccine against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Soberana 02, the vaccine's developer, Finlay Institute, said on Twitter.

"We are pleased to inform you that Phase 1 of clinical trials of the Soberana 02 candidate vaccine, based on the Finlay Institute's conjugated vaccine platform, has been approved by the centre for state control of drugs and medical equipment," the institute said.

Clinical trials of the first Cuban vaccine, Soberana 01, began in August 2020 and will end in January 2021. The study involves 676 people aged 18 to 80.

01:14 GMT 28.10.2020

Mexico’s Health Ministry registered 5,942 new COVID-19 cases and 643 more fatalities in the country, bringing the total number of cases to 901,268 and the death toll to 89,814.

00:45 GMT 28.10.2020
00:26 GMT 28.10.2020

UK Vaccines Taskforce Chair Kate Bingham announced on Tuesday that the early COVID-19 vaccines are "likely to be imperfect", adding that they "might not work for everyone".

"However, we do not know that we will ever have a vaccine at all. It is important to guard against complacency and over-optimism", Bingham said, according to The Lancet medical journal.

"The first generation of vaccines is likely to be imperfect, and we should be prepared that they might not prevent infection but rather reduce symptoms, and, even then, might not work for everyone or for long", she added.

23:51 GMT 27.10.2020

Canada has surpassed 10,000 coronavirus-related deaths and 222,000 cases, provincial health agencies reported.

A combined 28 new deaths in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec pushed Canada’s tally to 10,001, according to data released by provincial health agencies on Tuesday.

A cumulative new 2,691 COVID-19 infections in the four provinces along with British Columbia and Saskatchewan, brought the national tally to 222,904.

Canadian officials and health authorities have urged vigilance and caution as the country remains mired in the second wave of the deadly pandemic.

23:17 GMT 27.10.2020

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that if the current coronavirus response measures were not followed, the country risked facing the need to introduce a general quarantine.

“We cannot deceive ourselves that with the epidemiological curve continuing to grow, people can go wherever they want. If we follow the measures, we have a good chance of a relatively calm December. Otherwise, we will face the need for a general lockdown, which we must avoid in every possible way,” Conte said at a press conference in Rome.

As of Tuesday, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Italy exceeded 564,000, more than 271,000 patients recovered, and 37,700 people died of the disease. A record 21,994 new cases were recorded on Tuesday.

22:45 GMT 27.10.2020

All in-person meetings of the UN General Assembly and its Committees scheduled for this week were suspended after COVID-19 infections have been reported in a diplomatic mission, UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir said in a letter.

22:28 GMT 27.10.2020

The US states of Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada will conduct their own joint review of the safety and efficacy of the forthcoming coronavirus vaccine, the Office of the Governor of California said in a statement.

"Washington, Oregon and Nevada have joined California’s COVID-19 Scientific Safety Review Workgroup, which will independently review the safety and efficacy of any vaccine approved by the FDA for distribution," the statement said on Tuesday.

22:18 GMT 27.10.2020

Vaccine makers contracted by the US government for the COVID-19 are not cutting corners on safety and are committed to meeting regulators’ highest approval, Matthew Hepburn, the head of the program, said as concerns remained a week before the country’s elections that the process might be tainted by politics.

"We are not cutting corners on safety," Hepburn, who heads President Donald Trump’s "Operation Warp Speed" program on Vaccine Development, told a live-streamed event on Tuesday. "We are not cutting corners on the quality of the manufactured product. Those will be done to the highest standards. And we are not cutting corners in terms of what would be expected from an approval by a regulatory authority like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which, I think, has the highest standard in the world for medical products."

Operation Warp Speed is a $10.8 billion push by the Trump administration to rapidly move COVID-19 candidate vaccines from concept to communities.

21:10 GMT 27.10.2020
20:43 GMT 27.10.2020
20:29 GMT 27.10.2020

The authorities in the German capital of Berlin have strengthened restrictions on mass gatherings amid a surge in new COVID-19 cases, according to an announcement made on Tuesday.

"The number of people allowed at events is limited to 500 people outdoors and 300 indoors," the Berlin Senate said in a press release.

The social distancing measures have been tightened in the German capital as the incidence of new COVID-19 infections continues to rise. On Monday, the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants over the preceding week in Berlin stood at 131.8, nearly three times the benchmark of 50 per 100,000.

Despite the rise, Berlin is not yet suffering from a shortage of available intensive care beds, the city authorities have said.

The previous limit for mass gatherings in Berlin stood at 5,000 outdoors and 1,000 indoors.

20:26 GMT 27.10.2020

Greece will introduce a lockdown in the northern regions of Ioannina and Serres starting from Thursday amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, Nikos Hardalias, deputy minister for civil protection and crisis management, said on Tuesday.

Like many other European countries, Greece has been seeing a spike in daily registered coronavirus cases this month — a single-day record of over 1,000 cases was confirmed on Tuesday.

The red alert level, which envisions imposing additional coronavirus-related restrictions, will be introduced in Ioannina and Serres on Thursday morning, Hardalias said during a briefing. The extra measures involve the wearing of masks, restrictions on travel and a ban on mass gatherings.

Greece has already imposed a similar lockdown in Kozani and Kastoria regions, also located in the country’s north. At the same time, Hardalias said that the health crisis in Thessaloniki and Larissa is challenging.

To date, Greece has confirmed over 32,000 cases, including nearly 10,000 recoveries and 593 deaths.

20:08 GMT 27.10.2020

 Moscow has registered 75 deaths of patients infected with COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the Russian capital's death toll to 6,578, the city's coronavirus response center said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Another 75 patients, who were diagnosed with pneumonia and tested positive for the coronavirus infection, died in Moscow," the center said.

In the previous day, 61 people infected with the coronavirus died in Moscow.

19:17 GMT 27.10.2020
19:09 GMT 27.10.2020

Wisconsin registered 64 fatalities due to COVID-19 and 5,262 new cases over the last 24 hours. The US state's officials have urged citizens to stay home, wear a mask, and implored them to avoid travelling as well as social gatherings.

18:34 GMT 27.10.2020
18:30 GMT 27.10.2020
17:15 GMT 27.10.2020
17:12 GMT 27.10.2020
16:46 GMT 27.10.2020

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has extended the coronavirus-fuelled lockdown in the capital Manila region until the end of November, the Inquirer news agency reported on Tuesday.

The news agency cited Duterte’s taped speech that aired on Tuesday morning.

The Philippines has imposed a general community quarantine (GCQ) in Manila and 12 other provinces to halt the spread of the coronavirus. The GCQ involves the wearing of masks, maintaining social distance, and restrictions on the operation of public places, institutions, businesses and transport.

According to the Inquirer, Duterte also extended the quarantine until late November in the provinces of Batangas and Lanao del Sur, as well as in several cities across the country.

To date, the Philippines has confirmed over 373,000 COVID-19 cases, including more than 328,000 recoveries and 7,053 deaths.

16:36 GMT 27.10.2020
16:04 GMT 27.10.2020

Scientists at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) are attempting to modify an experimental treatment to mitigate lung damage in Cystic Fibrosis to do the same for COVID-19 patients, the Defense Department said in a press release on Tuesday.

While researching treatments of Cystic Fibrosis, scientists identified certain miniature RNA molecules that have anti-inflammatory properties that reduce lung destruction characteristic of the disease, the release said.

''Our goal is to suppress inflammatory proteins, like Interleukins (IL-6, IL-8, IL-1-), which play a major role in the damage caused by SARS-CoV-2 [novel coronavirus],'' USU Associate Professor Roopa Biswas said in the release.

Biswas explained that USU scientists, in collaboration with colleagues at Johns Hopkins University, are focusing on how short segments of non-coding RNAs can interfere with protein formation, which in turn could reduce inflammation and ultimately suppress the novel coronavirus. Some of these RNAs are designed to directly target the virus itself.

After recovering from severe cases of COVID-19, many victims suffer from long-term lung damage, the release noted.

In a separate project, USU researchers are working with scientists at the regenerative medicine biotech company NellOne Therapeutics to study a protein previously shown to restore injured bone, cartilage, skeletal and heart muscle tissues that were damaged by over-inflammation from viral infections, the release said.

Biswas’ team at USU is now testing the NellOne treatment on coronavirus infected mice, the release added.

16:03 GMT 27.10.2020

The new measures against COVID-19 in Italy, envisaging a curfew for all bars and restaurants among other regulations, might lead to the closure of another 20,000 businesses, the Italian Federation of Restaurateurs and Merchants (Fiepet Confesercenti) told Sputnik.

On Monday, a new governmental decree entered into force in Italy, banning bars and restaurants from working after 6 p.m. (17:00 GMT), as well as closing theatres, movie theatres, gyms, swimming pools, spa centres and casinos. The measures will stay in effect until at least November 24.

"The suspension of activities set forth by the latest decree involves the risk of overthrowing thousands of enterprises and workplaces. It is yet another blow to trade, tourism and activities, which may cause the closure of another 20,000 businesses, bringing the total number of businesses expected to shut down this year from 90,000 to 110,000," a spokesperson for Fiepet Confesercenti said.

According to the organization's estimate, the losses that Italian merchants are likely to endure as a result of the government's counter-coronavirus measures are likely to reach 5.8 billion euros ($6.8 billion). This forecast was compiled before the new restrictions were adopted.

"With the latest measures, which came into force on Monday, there is a risk of having consequences that are almost unbearable for businesses, as they will not only reduce spending for the entities that suffer from the new measures, but also push families to further increase savings, which results in a general reduction of consumption," the spokesperson said.

The daily increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in Italy has been on the rise since early October, having already surpassed 21,000 cases per day to date. As of Tuesday, the Italian health authorities have confirmed a cumulative total of over 542,000 cases, including 37,479 deaths.

15:24 GMT 27.10.2020
15:21 GMT 27.10.2020

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has tested positive for coronavirus, the organisation said in a statement. 

Infantino has placed himself in self-isolation and will remain in quarantine for ten days. He has mild symptoms, FIFA said. 

15:14 GMT 27.10.2020

The Indian authorities on Tuesday extended COVID-19 restrictions that were last updated in September until late November.

"Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued an Order today to extend the Guidelines for Re-opening, issued on 30.09.2020, to remain in force up to 30.11.2020," the statement said.

India introduced the first lockdown measures in March. The country has since opened up almost all activities in areas outside the designated containment zones. In addition, states were given the right to decide on their own reopening.

In late September, India issued its latest guidelines for reopening. As part of the fifth phase of relaxing the lockdown, the country reopened movie theatres and theatres with 50 percent of their capacity and allowed outdoor gatherings of up to 100 people and indoor meetings of up to 200 people. International air travel is still banned, with a few exceptions.

With over 7.9 million cumulative COVID-19 cases, India is the world’s second worst-hit country after the United States. On Tuesday, the second-most populous nation reported 36,410 new infections, which is the lowest daily rise since mid-July.

15:13 GMT 27.10.2020

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is self-isolating after contact with a person who had the coronavirus, the ministry said Tuesday.

"Because of the contact with a person who has COVID-19, Sergey Lavrov will self-isolate. Visits and meetings that were planned will be postponed. [He is] feeling well," the ministry said.

13:52 GMT 27.10.2020

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday told medical conference in Berlin that any restriction of human rights in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic would be well justified, and stressed that all social distancing measures that Germany has implemented were temporary.

“We should proceed from the fact that such measures are not usual neither for me, nor for the whole government, we understand that each interference in the basic rights must be well justified and clarified. Everything that we do must only be temporary and must be legitimized by facts and necessity,” Merkel said.

The chancellor added that, though, all the restrictions, which had been imposed by the authorities, “are aimed at protecting the population and, especially, risk groups,” nevertheless, they should not divide the society.

On Tuesday, German newspaper Bild reported that the government was planning to impose “lockdown light” after Merkel’s meeting with the heads of the German states set for Wednesday. This lockdown should close bars and restaurants, ban mass events and allowing schools, kindergartens and shops to continue working.

13:31 GMT 27.10.2020

The United States has eased its COVID-19 travel advisories for Bolivia and Panama, while raising its alert for Mauritius amid a new surge of infections, the US State Department said in a Travel Advisory Update on Tuesday.

“This week, the following Travel Advisories have been assessed and lowered to a Level 3, Reconsider Travel: Panama, Bolivia,” the State Department said. "The following Travel Advisory has been assessed and raised to a Level 3 – Reconsider Travel: Mauritius.”

The State Department also lowered its alert for Bermuda to Level 2, which calls for exercising increased caution.

It also maintained last week's warning for Somalia at Level 4 or "Do Not Travel," while also keeping its alerts for Albania and Comoros at Level 3.

12:37 GMT 27.10.2020

The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the UK rose to 61,116, according to official data. 

12:28 GMT 27.10.2020

Meanwhile, the country's Health Minister said that the duration of strengthened coronavirus measures will depend on the way the infection is spreading. 

11:53 GMT 27.10.2020

Participants in the protests against restrictive measures introduced across Italy over the coronavirus pandemic have been detained in several cities as a result of violent clashes between law enforcement officers and hundreds of demonstrators, the ANSA news agency reported on Tuesday.

Like most other countries in Europe, Italy has faced a spike in daily registered COVID-19 cases throughout October. Within the context, the government has limited bars' and restaurants' working hours, while several Italian regions — namely Lombardy, Lazio and Campania — have imposed curfews in response to the increased infection rate.

According to the news agency, Milan and Turin were the hardest-hit cities by the protests, which involved numerous acts of vandalism, fires set to trash cans and stores being looted. As a result, 28 people were detained in Milan and six others in central Turin.

The news agency added that minors and foreign nationals — namely two Egyptians — were among those detained.

11:23 GMT 27.10.2020

China is ready to cooperate with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member states to overcome the crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen said on Tuesday.

"The pandemic has gravely affected the economic and social development of the region. China is ready to work with the union's member states to cope with the crisis, coordinate policy measures and deepen economic and trade cooperation," Wang said at the Conjugation of the EAEU and the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative video forum.

According to the senior official, bilateral trade between China and the EAEU member states — Beijing's relevant partners under the initiative — has slightly fallen due to the pandemic of the first eight months of 2020, while China's share in the foreign trade of these nations has increased.

"Over the same period, China's investment in the union grew contrary to the trend, with direct investment reaching $710 million, making a year-on-year increase of 7.9 percent," Wang added.

Since the economies of the two sides largely complement each other, Beijing invites the EAEU member states to participate in export-import exhibitions to present their products, expand mutual investment, deepen cooperation in manufacturing, infrastructure construction, agriculture and services, the vice minister said.

11:11 GMT 27.10.2020

Local authorities in Kashgar, located in China’s western Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region, have identified a total of 183 new COVID-19 cases after completing 4.74 million tests for local residents, a top local health official said during a press conference on Tuesday.

"As of 5:00 p.m. (9:00 GMT) on Oct 27, the Kashgar region has five confirmed COVID-19 cases and 178 asymptomatic cases," Li Linyu, the party secretary of the Kashgar Health Commission, said during the press conference.

China lists asymptomatic COVID-19 positive patients separately and does not include them in the country's total COVID-19 case count.

Li added that Kashgar detected 19 new asymptomatic cases on Tuesday, which brought the total number of newly identified COVID-19 cases to 183.

Local authorities in Kashgar stepped up their efforts in testing local residents for possible COVID-19 infections after a 17-year-old girl who worked in a textile factory in Shufu County tested positive for the new virus during a routine COVID-19 screening at work on Saturday.

In response to the girl's confirmed COVID-19 infection, 831 staff members at her factory and 406 of her close contacts were tested on Saturday. Test results released on Sunday showed 137 of her close contacts were infected, but all of them showed no symptoms.

According to Li, local authorities have completed the 4.74 million COVID-19 tests for all local residents.

11:10 GMT 27.10.2020

Approximately every third test for the coronavirus in the Czech Republic — 31 percent of conducted tests — comes back positive, marking the highest rate among the EU countries, the Czech Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

"Over the past seven days, an average of 31 percent of all tests conducted came back positive, which is the highest rate in the EU. On Monday, another 10,273 people infected with the coronavirus were registered in the Czech Republic. The record high was registered on October 23 — 15,252 new patients," the ministry said in a statement.

So far, the country's total tally has reached 268,370 cases, including 2,365 fatalities and 103,220 recoveries. As of Tuesday, 162,785 people have been infected with the virus, with 5,613 of them receiving treatment in hospitals.

In a bid to curb the pandemic, the Czech authorities declared a state of emergency on October 5. Restrictive measures were further tightened, with the government introducing late on Monday a curfew that orders citizens to stay at home from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. (from 20:00 to 04:00 GMT) from October 28 to November 3. During the day, people may leave their homes to go to work, as well as visit relatives, or buy food and medicines.

Later on Tuesday, the government is expected to ask the country's parliament to extend the state of emergency for another 30 days. Lawmakers are expected to review the proposal on Friday.

11:09 GMT 27.10.2020

More than 30 African countries have reached out to Russia to ask for assistance in tackling their coronavirus outbreaks, Andrei Kemarsky, the head of the Department of Africa at the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday.

"More than 30 African states have asked Russia for assistance in fighting the pandemic, and their number continues to grow," Kemarsky told the News.ru news portal.

The assistance they have asked for includes testing kits, personal protection equipment, ventilators, ambulance vehicles, field hospitals, vaccines, therapeutics and other medical supplies, as well as the deployment of Russian health experts to Africa where they can assist in the development of COVID-19 vaccines, according to the official.

Russia strives to "feasibly respond" to these requests, including by means of public-private partnerships with participation of African-based Russian businesses, considering such assistance Moscow's contribution to "strengthening the African national potential in the fight against threats and pandemics."

With regard to the vaccine, in particular, Kemarsky said Moscow was reviewing the requests on a one-by-one basis with consideration of Russia's current production capacity. Russia was the first country to register a coronavirus vaccine, labelled Sputnik V, which is currently completing the last phase of clinical trials.

"In general, we remain open for mutually beneficial cooperation in this area, and we are ready to consider the supply of vaccines to foreign markets and, should there be interest, the possibility of localizing their production," Kemarsky said.

As noted by the diplomat, Russia has already provided coronavirus-related humanitarian assistance of various kinds to Guinea, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Djibouti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Angola and Cabo Verde.

The World Health Organization currently categorizes Africa as the second least affected region to the Western Pacific. As of Tuesday, close to 1.3 million COVID-19 cases were confirmed across the African continent, including 29,191 deaths.

10:45 GMT 27.10.2020

According to Iran's Health Ministry, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country has increased by 6,968 in the past 24 hours, with 346 new fatalities.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Iran currently stands at 581,824, with 33,299 fatalities.  

10:28 GMT 27.10.2020

If Russia fails to overcome the current coronavirus situation, additional restrictions may be introduced, the head of the national public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, told Sputnik on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, the watchdog issued new recommendations to curb the coronavirus infection, recommending Russians to wear protective masks in places of mass gathering, and heads of regions to ban entertainment events and restaurant operation between 23:00 and 06:00 local time.

"If we do not cope with this phase, then we will be talking about additional restrictions," Anna Popova said.

Popova stressed the need to prevent further spreading of the infection by wearing protective masks and gloves.

10:11 GMT 27.10.2020

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of South Korea is discussing whether to accelerate the approval procedure of a candidate coronavirus vaccine developed by UK-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The candidate vaccine is one of the front-runners on the WHO-monitored list of candidate vaccines on a path to approval once they pass all three required phases of clinical trials.

09:31 GMT 27.10.2020
08:40 GMT 27.10.2020
08:02 GMT 27.10.2020

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates said he expects vaccines against COVID-19 to hit the markets in early 2021 but expected that not all vaccine candidates in the phase three trials will be effective.

“With any luck, we will have two or three of the six that are in phase three trials right now", Gates said to Yahoo! Finance Monday.

Gates, who’s public health philanthropy organization has invested billions into several drug manufacturers to expedite the development of an effective vaccine, said that Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson have a good chance of clearing the standards for public use.

“Even if of the first six, two or three get approved, their effectiveness in terms of stopping you from being sick and stopping you from transmitting may not be perfect", Gates went on to say.

08:00 GMT 27.10.2020

The Japanese government has passed amendments to the law, according to which the country’s population would be vaccinated against the coronavirus disease for free, the Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday.

According to the media outlet, the vaccination will be obligatory, however, if there is insufficient evidence on vaccine safety, the obligation will be waived.

The government will also pay compensation in the event of adverse reactions following the inoculation.

Japan expects to have the COVID-19 vaccine in the first half of 2021, which will be sufficient for the entire population.

07:55 GMT 27.10.2020
07:40 GMT 27.10.2020

"In the past 24 hours, Russia confirmed 16,550 COVID-19 cases in 85 regions, of which 4,372 (26.4 percent) were detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms", the response centre said, adding that the case count has reached 1,547,774.

The largest increase was identified in Moscow, where 4,312 new positive tests were registered (down from 5,224 yesterday). A total of 721 new cases were recorded in St. Petersburg (up from 715 yesterday) and 496 cases were confirmed in the Moscow Region down from 499 yesterday).

The response centre reported a new record of 320 COVID-19 fatalities, up from 219 yesterday, raising the country’s death toll to 26,589.

Russia's single-day recoveries rose to record 12,844, up from 7,574 yesterday, bringing the total to 1,158,940.

07:00 GMT 27.10.2020
05:42 GMT 27.10.2020
04:39 GMT 27.10.2020
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