Over the past day, more than 747,000 new coronavirus cases were confirmed worldwide — an all-time high global daily increase — as reported by the World Health Organisation.
The United States, India, Brazil and France lead in terms of the number of registered cases, while the largest number of coronavirus-related deaths has been observed in the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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Public schools in NYC will resume in-person classes starting early December, New York City (NYC) Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced.
"Beginning the week of Monday, December 7, New York City public schools will begin to reopen. We will begin with elementary schools," de Blasio said on Sunday, as broadcast on the official NYC Mayor Twitter page.
According to de Blasio, public schools in NYC will be reopening in phases, starting with preschool programs and kindergarten through fifth grades (3-K, Pre-K and K-5 students).
"Later that week, on Thursday, December 10th, our district 75 special education programs [will relaunch]," the mayor said.
In-person classes were halted in NYC in mid-November when daily positive testing for the coronavirus crossed critical levels set by the city.
Another 74 people have died from the coronavirus disease in the Russian capital over the past 24 hours, the city's COVID-19 response center said on Sunday.
"In Moscow, 74 patients with confirmed pneumonia diagnosis and positive coronavirus test results died," the center said in an update.
Moscow's cumulative death toll from COVID-19 has now reached 8,902.
Rinat Maksyutov, the director of Russia's Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, said on Sunday that already 35,000 doses of antigens-based coronavirus vaccine EpiVacCorona had been produced, including 5,000 doses for use during clinical trials and the rest for civil use beginning from December.
"The first series of vaccine products for civil use will be examined by the Ministry of Health no earlier than December 7-8. So far, since the vaccine's registration on October 13, we have already produced 35,000 doses — to be increased to 50,000 doses by the year-end — including about 5,000 doses that were used during post-registration clinical trials and the rest will be introduced into civil circulation," Maksyutov said at the Science Bar Hopping virtual festival.
Turkey has registered as many as 29,281 new coronavirus cases and 185 related deaths over the past 24 hours, marking the highest daily increment in the number of fatalities since the outbreak of the pandemic, the Turkish Health Ministry said on Sunday.
The previous record of 182 new fatalities was set on Saturday.
The updates bring the overall number of those infected in the country to 494,351 and the death toll to 13,558.
In a bid to curb the virus, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier in November ordered the closure of cafes and restaurants and a partial curfew on weekends. Schools were switched to online learning.
Vaccines against coronavirus will be available for "higher priority people" in the United States by mid-December, Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview with the ABC News broadcaster on Sunday.
"Help is on the way. Vaccines are really right on the horizon. We will be having vaccines available for the higher priority people towards the middle and end of December," Fauci said.
According to the top infectious diseases expert, the vaccines' development was carried out under the supervision of scientists and the safety and scientific nature of the process was not questioned.
Commenting on the possible side effects, Fauci said, citing the history of vaccinology, that the vaccination was usually accompanied by immediate pain in the arm or fever, noting that there was no prolonged side effects. The specialist added that special mechanisms for monitoring patients had been developed.
Earlier in November, Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Moncef Slaoui expressed hopes that the US would immunize 20 million residents in December and at least 25 million each month in 2021. The statement came in light of the announcement by Pfizer that its vaccine candidate was 95 percent effective. In addition, Slaoui said that the US authorities might approve for emergency use two coronavirus vaccines in December.
New York City's public schools will begin to reopen for in-person learning on 7 December, starting with elementary schools, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Sunday.
Two Japanese developers, Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric, separately developed contactless elevators that do not require users to press any buttons to select a floor, the NHK broadcaster reported on Sunday.
The innovation is meant to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread in Japan.
According to Japanese broadcaster NHK, the touchless system developed by Hitachi allows people to use an elevator by scanning a QR code via the LINE messaging application. The company is already selling another system that recognizes elevator user faces and automatically selects floors.
Separately, Mitsubishi Electric showcased a system that automatically takes pre-registered users to their floors.
Japan is seeing a sharp rise in daily-detected coronavirus cases over the past month, and a new single-day record of 2,684 cases was registered on Saturday. The country’s overall tally is nearing 150,000. Japan has so far recorded 122,550 recoveries and 2,133 coronavirus-related fatalities.
A second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the Netherlands can last until March if the current rate of the spread of the virus in the country persists, experts from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Jaap van Dissel and Jacco Wallinga, said in an interview with the Dutch NOS broadcaster.
"Yes, this is very realistic," Wallinga said on Saturday when asked if it was possible that the situation in the Netherlands will not stabilize until March if the daily increase in COVID-19 cases continues to grow at the current rate.
According to the RIVM's preliminary estimates, the COVID-19 incidence in the Netherlands was set to drop to the last summer's rates in January.
Van Dissel expressed an opinion that the rather slow rate at which the number of daily cases had been declining could be the result of more people switching back to working from office rather than home.
"Ultimately, all this is reflected in the number of contacts with other people, which partly determines the number of those infected. One gets the impression that as soon as there is good news people let their guards down," van Dissel added.
To date, the Netherlands has confirmed 513,325 cases of the coronavirus, including 9,326 fatalities.
Hong Kong is suspending face-to-face classes at all schools and kindergartens until the beginning of school Christmas holidays, the government of the special administrative region of China said on Sunday, when the city recorded the highest number of new COVID-19 cases since August.
"Further to the Government's earlier separate announcements on suspension of face-to-face classes and school activities for all kindergartens and Primary 1 to Primary 3 levels of primary schools until 6 December, the Government announced today (29 November) that in light of the worsening situation of the COVID-19 epidemic, all kindergartens as well as primary and secondary schools (including special schools and schools offering non-local curriculum) will suspend face-to-face classes and school activities starting from this Wednesday (2 December) until the beginning of school Christmas holidays," the Hong Kong government said in a press release.
Hong Kong’s health authorities have warned that the region is facing a fourth wave of the coronavirus outbreak and many new cases are related to a so-called dance venue cluster. Out of 115 cases registered on Sunday, 62 were linked to the cluster, 23 had other known links, 24 were untraceable and six were imported.
At the same time, the new measure envisages only a two-week suspension for private schools that offer non-formal curriculum. The government also said that schools should implement "various learning modes" to properly organize distance learning. At the same time, educational facilities will remain open for students who have "the lack of carers at home."
Overall, Hong Kong has so far confirmed 6,239 COVID-19 cases, including 109 deaths and 5,340 recoveries.
Singaporean woman Celine Ng-Chan, who had been infected with COVID-19 during the pregnancy, has given birth to a healthy baby with COVID-19 antibodies, the Straits Times newspaper reported on Sunday.
According to the media, Ng-Chan contracted COVID-19 in March, when she came back home from Europe, being ten weeks pregnant. She was taken to hospital but was let home after several weeks, as the infection did not threaten her life. In early October, Ng-Chan gave birth to a healthy boy, weighing 3.5 kilograms (7.7 pounds).
"My doctor suspects I have transferred my Covid-19 antibodies to him during my pregnancy," Ng-Chan said as quoted by the Singaporean media outlet.
The newspaper noted that Ng-Chan was not the first woman in Singapore to give birth to a baby after having contracted the coronavirus. In May, media reported on Natasha Ling who gave birth to her baby after she had contracted the infection.
In April, Anna Simakova, a Russian Chief Specialist in Infectious Diseases in the Russian Primorsky Territory, told Sputnik that scientists were not been able to confirm yet that COVID-19 can be directly transmitted from a mother to a baby. Simakova added that babies always received antibodies from their mothers, but concerning the COVID-19 antibodies, the period of pregnancy, when a woman contracted the infection, should be taken into account.
The World Health Organization has reported 61,869,330 COVID-19 cases globally, with 1,448,896 deaths.
Poland’s coronavirus-related death toll has surpassed 17,000 while the COVID-19 case tally is approaching one million, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.
Over the last 24 hours, Poland’s COVID-19 case count rose by 11,483 to 985,075, and the number of related fatalities increased by 283 to 17,029.
More than 21,000 coronavirus-positive patients are being treated in hospitals across Poland, and 2,100 of them are on ventilators. Nearly 560,000 people have recovered from COVID-19.
The government has responded to the pandemic with strict restrictions — cafes, restaurants and bars are closed, schools have switched to online learning and gatherings of more than five people are prohibited. All citizens are required to weak face masks even in outdoor spaces.
All shops, restaurants, cafes and consumer services that has been shut down since October amid the coronavirus pandemic will resume operations starting from 3 December, Health Minister Jan Blatny said on Sunday following an extraordinary government meeting.
The Czech Republic saw its daily infection rate drop over the past several weeks. On Saturday, 2,667 new cases were registered in the country, while in late October the number of new infections per day was over three times higher.
"In connection with the improvement in the epidemiological situation in the republic in recent weeks, the government allowed all shops, food and consumer services to open from Thursday, 3 December," Blatny said, noting that these shops and services need 15 square meters (161.5 square feet) of space per one customer.
To date, the Czech Republic has confirmed 518,649 COVID-19 cases, with a death toll of 8,054, according to the health authorities.
"There's a risk of that (if) we don't get the balance right," Raab said.
Indonesia has set a new single-day record of the number of COVID-19 cases, the Indonesian Health Ministry said on Sunday.
A total of 6,267 cases were recorded in Indonesia over the given period, bringing the overall number of cases to 534,266.
The death toll from the disease has reached 16,815 since the outbreak of the pandemic, while 445,793 COVID-19 patients have recovered across the country.
Indonesia has been experiencing a surge in the daily increment of COVID-19 cases since early September, confirming over 3,000 new infections per day. Within the context, the authorities reimposed restrictions introduced during the spring outbreak.
Russia has registered 26,683 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 2,269,316, the federal response centre said on Sunday.
"In the past 24 hours, Russia has confirmed 26,683 COVID-19 cases in 85 regions, of which 5,901 (22.1 percent) were detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms," the response centre said, adding that the case count has reached 2,269,316.
Moscow has confirmed 6,798 new coronavirus cases over the given period. The Russian capital was followed by Saint Petersburg with 3,701 cases and the Moscow region with 1,069 new cases.
The response center said that Russia’s COVID-19 death toll increased by 459 to 39,527 over the past day.
As many as 21,987 coronavirus patients were confirmed to have recovered, bringing the total to 1,761,457.
The British government has secured another 2 million doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine and expects that around 3.5 million people will be able to get vaccinated, the government said in a Sunday statement.
"The UK was one of the first countries in Europe to sign a deal with Moderna, and I’m delighted we have been able to secure a further 2 million doses of their promising candidate for the British public," Business Secretary Alok Sharma said as quoted in the government release.
According to the statement, the new deal, signed on Sunday, brings the total number of Moderna vaccine doses secured for the UK to 7 million.
"Following today’s deal, the UK now has access to enough doses of Moderna’s vaccine candidate for around 3.5 million people," the British government said on Sunday.
According to the government release, the Moderna vaccine still needs to get approval from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
"If it is approved, 7 million doses could start to be delivered to the UK as early as spring 2021 - the same timetable as other countries in Europe," the British government said.
In total, the UK has secured 357 million vaccine doses from 7 different developers.
The Moderna vaccine appears to be nearly 95% effective. It is currently in phase 3 clinical trials.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis has tested positive for the coronavirus and will now self-isolate.
"This evening I learned that First Gentleman Marlon Reis and I have tested positive for COVID-19. We are both asymptomatic, feeling well, and will continue to isolate at home," Polis said on Twitter, posting a relevant government statement.
According to the release, Polis will continue with his duties and will work remotely.
"I urge every Coloradan to practice caution, limit public interactions, wear a mask in public, stay six feet from others, and wash your hands regularly," Polis said, as quoted in the government statement.
Earlier this week, Polis announced that he had come into contact with an individual who had tested positive for COVID-19. The governor's first coronavirus test after the exposure came back negative.
According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, there have been over 220,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state and the total death toll stands at over 2,500.
Germany registered 14,611 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, down from 21.695 a day ago, taking the total count to 1,042,700, the Robert Koch Institute said on Sunday.
Over the past few days, Germany has been reporting over 20,000 cases a day on average.
In addition, the country’s COVID-19 death toll increased by 158 to 16,123 over the given period, while the number of recoveries surpassed 722,000.
