A woman wearing a face mask to protect against the coronavirus disease walks on Red Square in downtown Moscow on Sept 24, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP)

WASHINGTON / PARIS / GUATEMALA CITY / BERLIN / OTTAWA / ZURICH / SAO PAULO / MEXICO CITY / MADRID / BRUSSELS / ADDIS ABABA / LONDON / MOSCOW / HELSINKI / MILAN - Russia President Vladimir Putin urged Russians to stick to social distancing rules and said he wanted to avoid another strict lockdown on Thursday, when the daily tally of new COVID-19 cases was the highest in more than two months.

Russia’s COVID-19 response centre recorded 6,595 new infections on Thursday, the highest daily count since mid-July. Moscow had 1,050 new cases, more than any other city or region in Russia.

Russia exited lockdown in early June, and many shops, businesses and the transport network in Moscow are now operating as usual, though office occupancy rates remain sharply lower.

Guidelines on social distancing remain in place, and people must wear face coverings in shops and on public transport in the Russian capital, though some flout those rules which are not rigorously enforced.

The number of coronavirus patients hospitalised in Moscow each day increased by around 30 percent in the last week, the capital’s COVID-19 response centre said on Thursday, but did not provide patient numbers.

The response centre said 149 people had died nationwide in the last 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 19,948.

Russia’s case tally of 1,128,836 is the world’s fourth-highest.

Flu

A surge in COVID-19 cases in Europe risks becoming a deadly double epidemic of flu and coronavirus infections, EU health officials warned on Thursday as they urged Europeans and their governments not to let their guard down.

“It is abundantly clear that this crisis is not behind

us. We are at a decisive moment,” the EU’s commissioner for health, Stella Kyriakides, told a media briefing.

With winter approaching in the region, she warned of the risk of a potentially lethal “twindemic of COVID-19 and the flu” and urged governments to encourage people to get seasonal flu vaccines and adhere to social distancing measures to reduce transmission of the novel coronavirus.

“This might be our last chance to prevent a repeat of last spring,” Kyriakides said.

Adults at high risk from flu are also most at risk from COVID-19. Research by scientists at Public Health England (PHE) released this week suggested the risk of death more than doubled for people who tested positive for both flu and COVID-19, compared to those with COVID-19 alone.

Seasonal flu viruses cause between 4 and 50 million infections each year across the European region - depending on whether the region experiences a severe or relatively mild flu season - and an estimated 15,000 to 70,000 Europeans die each year of causes linked to flu.

Kyriakides and Andrea Ammon, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, which monitors disease across the European region, said there had been a worrying increase in COVID-19 cases since August, with some countries already seeing higher case numbers than during the March peak.

UK

The British government estimates fewer than 10,000 people a day are contracting COVID-19, Health Minister Matt Hancock said on Thursday, less than during the pandemic's peak, even as numbers testing positive have risen to similar levels.

Hancock also said the proportion of people getting a so-called false positive test result is below 1 percent.

The UK government is considering carrying out studies that would deliberately expose healthy people to the coronavirus in a bid to accelerate the development of a vaccine

The government is considering carrying out the first studies that would deliberately expose healthy people to the coronavirus in a bid to accelerate the development of a vaccine.

“We are working with partners to understand how we might collaborate on the potential development of a COVID-19 vaccine through human-challenge studies,” a government representative said Wednesday in an email. 

So-called "challenge trials" are expected to begin in January at a quarantine facility in London, the Financial Times (FT) reported, adding that about 2,000 participants had signed up. FT said in its report that volunteers would first be inoculated with a vaccine and later receive a challenge dose of the coronavirus. It did not name the vaccines that would be assessed in the project.

The UK reported 6,178 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, the highest number of infections since May 1, government data showed. Another 37 deaths were also reported.

Hundreds of students have been in self-isolation in several British universities as major coronavirus outbreaks were reported on campus just days into the new academic year, media reports said Thursday.

 BBC reported that the latest outbreak at Glasgow University has led to 124 students testing positive and the university said about 600 people were self-isolating.

ALSO READ: UK's overstretched testing system 'puts recovery at risk'

The official statistics showed 409,729 people had tested positive for the virus with 41,862 deaths.

Scotland recorded 486 new cases, the biggest daily tally since the outbreak began, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told reporters in Edinburgh. 

Global tally

Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 31.8 million on Thursday while the global death toll topped 976,000, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

Africa tally

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases recorded across Africa has reached 1,420,629 as of Wednesday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said, adding that the death toll has risen to 34,327.

The Africa CDC said that some 17 African countries and regions are still under "full border closure" while closure of country-wide educational institutions has been activated across 33 African countries in an effort to halt the spread of COVID-19.

AstraZeneca's halted vaccine trial

AstraZeneca Plc, the drugmaker developing a potential coronavirus vaccine with the University of Oxford, said it is still waiting for a decision from US regulators on whether it can resume tests in the country after halting global trials due to concerns about a participant who became ill.

The company also is considering providing more information about clinical trials amid calls for increased transparency, Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot said Thursday in a World Economic Forum meeting.

AstraZeneca sent information to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “and we’re waiting to hear their decision,” Soriot said.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Wednesday the continued suspension showed the FDA was taking vaccine safety seriously.

Algeria

Algeria reported on Wednesday 186 new COVID-19 cases and nine more fatalities, bringing the total infections to 50,400 and the death toll to 1,698, said the Ministry of Health in a statement.

It was the lowest daily infection increase since June 29, according to the ministry statement.

Meanwhile, 121 more patients were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recoveries to 35,428.

Argentina

The Argentinian government warned on Wednesday that the novel coronavirus pandemic is spreading throughout the country with a higher incidence of cases and deaths in provinces outside of Buenos Aires.

"The provinces of La Rioja (northwest) and Jujuy (northwest) have surpassed the city of Buenos Aires in incidence in the last 14 days, and other provinces that have a significant number of cases in relation to the population are the provinces of Santa Cruz (south), Mendoza (west), Tierra del Fuego (south), Rio Negro (south), Santa Fe (east), and Salta (north), which are above the country's average," said Health Ministry's Secretary of Access to Health Carla Vizzotti.

The Health Ministry reported that the average daily cases of COVID-19 during the last seven days were 10,691, where the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires reported 52.1 percent of the cases in the country.

Argentina has so far reported 652,174 cases and 13,952 deaths. 

Austria

Austria is issuing coronavirus-related travel warnings for Prague and the French regions that include Paris and the Cote d'Azur while lifting a long-standing warning for Sweden, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

Warnings are also being issued for Andorra, Argentina, Bahrain, Costa Rica, Israel, Kuwait and the Maldives, while a travel warning for Portugal was being reduced to Lisbon and the Norte region, the ministry said in a statement. All changes will take effect from Monday.

Austria has so far reported 39,984 confirmed cases and 783 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Belgium

Belgium is ending a requirement to wear masks outdoors and reducing the time people have to self-isolate, in a slight easing of coronavirus restrictions announced on Wednesday despite sharply rising numbers of COVID-19 infections.

Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes said at a news conference that from Oct 1, people who have had contact with an infected person would only have to quarantine for seven days. Masks would no longer be mandatory everywhere outside, as currently the case in the capital Brussels and some other cities, she said.

Masks will still have to worn in shops, cinemas, on public transport and in crowded streets.

"The epidemiological situation is not evolving favorably," Wilmes said. However, there was no clear tightening of measures,.

Belgium has so far reported 105,226 confirmed cases and 9,955 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Brazil

The governor of Brazil's São Paulo state, João Doria, said on Wednesday the state is likely to start to immunize its population with China's Sinovac vaccine for COVID-19 in mid-December, pending regulatory approval.

Doria said at a news conference 5 million doses of the vaccine are expected to arrive in São Paulo in October. The state has a deal with Sinovac for 60 million doses to be delivered by the end of February, which Doria said is enough to vaccinate the state's entire population.

READ MORE: Chinese COVID-19 vaccine undergoing testing in Brazil

Sinovac's Latin America head, Xing Han, said the results of the Phase III trials should be out in two months.

Brazil recorded 33,281 fresh infections and 869 more deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the totals to  4,624,885 cases and 138,977 deaths, the Health Ministry said Wednesday.

People wait in line at a COVID-19 assessment centre at Women's College Hospital in Toronto, Canada, on Sept 23, 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. (NATHAN DENETTE / THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP)

Canada

Canada has entered a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday, warning that the country was on the brink of a surge if people did not follow public health guidelines.

"We're on the brink of a fall that could be much worse than the spring," he said. 

Canada's COVID-19 cases have spiked in recent days, with an average of 1,123 new cases reported daily over the past week, compared with a daily average of 380 cases in mid-August. So far, total infections reached 147,753 with 9,243 deaths, according to latest government data.

Earlier, Canada's Liberal government, insisting on Wednesday that "this is not the time for austerity," promised major new investments and initiatives to help the country battle back from the pandemic.

Trudeau's administration promised a plan to recover more than a million jobs lost during the crisis.

Chile

Chile's Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday 1,372 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the tally to 449,903.

Another 24 deaths were also reported, taking the death toll to 12,345.

The ministry said that 907 patients are currently hospitalized in intensive care units with 680 on ventilators and 121 in critical condition.

The ministry also said that the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test positivity rate for COVID-19 rose to 8.81 percent, the highest in almost two months.

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic recorded 2,309 new infections in its third highest daily rise since the coronavirus pandemic began, but the figure was down slightly from 2,392 the previous day, health ministry data showed on Thursday.

In total, the Czech Republic has reported 55,464 cases since the first infections were detected in March.

Ecuador

Ecuador reported on Wednesday a record number of 2,249 new cases of COVID-19, pushing the tally to 129,892.

Deaths rose by 45 to 7,375. Another 3,796 fatalities are believed to be probable COVID-19 deaths but lack verification.

Across the country, 12 of the 24 provinces are reporting high numbers of new cases with the capital Quito showing the steepest upward curve after detecting 1,502 new cases, taking the total to 32,543.  

Egypt

Egypt reported late on Wednesday 121 new COVID-19 infections, raising the tally to 102,375, said the Health Ministry.

Another 16 patients died, bringing the death toll to 5,822, while 700 more patients were cured and discharged from hospitals, taking the total number of recoveries to 91,843, the ministry's spokesman Khaled Megahed said in a statement.

EU

Brussels is close to wrapping up preliminary talks with US vaccine maker Novavax for its potential COVID-19 shot, an EU source involved in the negotiations said, as the bloc ramps up its push in the global race to secure supplies.

he move is meant to expand to seven the portfolio of vaccines the 27-country bloc, with a population of 450 million, wants to secure. It would bring doses potentially available to EU countries to more than 2 billion.

"We are at an advanced stage in talks with Novavax," the EU senior official said, who declined to be identified as negotiations are confidential.

The number of doses the EU could secure is still under discussion, the official said, noting that it was likely to be at least 100 million.

Finland

Finland warned on Thursday the COVID-19 pandemic was expanding again more rapidly in the country, after several months of relative calm, and was heading in an "alarming" direction.

Finnish authorities said it was disquieting that the number of new cases over the latest two weeks until Sunday had doubled to 798 from 387 in the previous two weeks.

"The rise in incidence rate, rising share of positive cases among all samples, increasing difficulties in tracing sources of infection and chains of infections becoming more common all anticipate a transition to an accelerating phase in the epidemic," the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health said in a statement.

Around 50 percent of new cases had been detected among under 30-year-olds, the ministry added.

Finland's public health authority THL expanded its mask recommendation from crowded public transport also to all public indoor spaces and public events in regions where the epidemic is speeding up.

By Wednesday, Finland's COVID-19 deaths totaled at 343 and cases at 9,288.

French Health Minister Olivier Veran speaks during a press conference in Paris, Sept 23, 2020. (ELIOT BLONDET / POOL PHOTO VIA AP)

France

Civic leaders in Marseille reacted with anger on Thursday to the closure of the city's bars and restaurants, saying they had not been consulted by the French government which ordered the measures to contain an upsurge in COVID-19 cases.

The response came after France's health minister unveiled a map of coronavirus "danger zones" around the country on Wednesday and gave the hardest-hit local authorities days to tighten restrictions or risk having a state of health emergency declared there.

France's health minister said Marseille and the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe will be put on the "maximum" alert level, while Paris, Lille, Toulouse and six other cities were declared "reinforced danger zones"

Olivier Veran said at a news conference the country would be divided into zones by alert level with Marseille, the second-largest city, and the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe for now the only two areas put on the "maximum" alert level.

Paris and its suburbs but also the northern city of Lille, the southwestern town of Toulouse and six other cities were declared "reinforced danger zones", Veran added.

ALSO READ: Europe virus stars scramble after declaring victory too fast

Shortly after Veran spoke, French health authorities reported 13,072 new confirmed COVID-19 cases over 24 hours, the daily tally coming in above 13,000 for the third time in six days. 

And, on a national level, the number of people in ICUs are around the 1,000 threshold, which is a 3-1/2-month high.

In Paris and the other cities now labelled "reinforced danger zones", attendance at major events will be limited to 1,000 people from the 5,000 allowed now, pre-planned events such as student parties will be banned, and bars and restaurants will have to close at 10 pm at the latest.

Among other measures, there will be a ban on public gatherings of more than 10 people and, in "maximum" alert level areas like Marseille, bars and restaurants will be closed from Saturday.

People wearing face masks wait for the train at a subway station in Frankfurt, Germany, on Sept 24, 2020. (MICHAEL PROBST / AP)

Germany

Germany's tally of coronavirus infections increased by 2,143 to 278,070 while deaths rose by 19 to 9,428, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday.

German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier became the country's second cabinet member to enter quarantine on Wednesday, writing that he would stay at home after coming into contact with the aide of another European Union minister who had tested positive.

Germany added regions in 11 European countries, including the Irish, Portugese and Danish capitals, to the list of destinations it classifies as coronavirus risk zones

Earlier, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was forced to cancel a planned trip to Jordan and quarantine himself after one of his bodyguards tested positive for COVID-19.

Both ministers have so far tested negative for the virus.

On the same day, Germany added regions in 11 European countries to the list of destinations it classifies as coronavirus risk zones.

Regions newly listed by the Robert Koch Institute health agency included the French regions of Centre-Val de Loire, Brittany and Normandy, as well as the coastal region Lika-Senj in Croatia and the upland Primorsko-notranjska region in Slovenia.

The Irish, Portuguese and Danish capitals, the Dutch province of Utrecht, Austria's state of Vorarlberg, most of the Czech Republic, Gyor county in Western Hungary and Romania's Covasna county were also listed.

Guatemala

Four more Guatemalan officials have tested positive for the coronavirus, authorities said on Wednesday, after Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei and a culture minister were revealed last week to have contracted COVID-19.

The 64-year-old president said in a televised message on Wednesday that he had endured a "pretty terrible" night and woke up with body pains.

Giammattei added that the General Subsecretary of the Presidency and the Vice-Minister of International Relations had both tested positive.

Authorities told Reuters later that two other government advisors had also tested positive, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in the upper ranks of government to at least six. 

Guatemala in total has registered 87,442 cases and 3,154 deaths.

Hungary

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is under fire for creating a legal loophole to allow tens of thousands of fans to attend Thursday’s UEFA Super Cup game in Budapest amid rising coronavirus cases.

Orban, an avid soccer fan who’s led a stadium construction boom in Hungary, watered down his own ban on foreign visitors to allow attendance to large sporting events such as the Super Cup. 

Right now, Hungary is struggling to slow the spread of COVID-19 with new infections more than tripling over the last week to nearly 6,000 cases from earlier this month.

Hungary has so far reported 21,200 confirmed cases and 709 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Ireland

The number of new coronavirus cases in Ireland will double every 12 to 14 days at the current rate, the nation’s health ministry said. 

Ireland reported 234 more cases on Wednesday, with two deaths.

“We are unfortunately seeing continuing increases in all metrics of the disease,” Health Ministry advisor Philip Nolan told reporters in Dublin, adding it was too early to see the impact of new restrictions imposed on the country last week.

Italy

Italy may apply well-targeted closures where necessary to contain the spread of the new coronavirus while another general lockdown is unlikely, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told la Stampa daily in an interview.

“Today the situation in Italy is certainly better than in other European countries, and we are better prepared - even as a health system - to face a possible resurgence of the spread of the virus,” Conte told the paper.

“At present I exclude the possibility of a general lockdown; there could be - if necessary - well-targeted closures.”

Italy has so far reported 302,537 confirmed cases and 35,758 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Libya

The National Center for Disease Control of Libya said Wednesday that 651 new COVID-19 cases were reported over the past 24 hours, bringing the tally to 30,097, including 16,430 recoveries and 469 deaths.

Lithuania

Lithuania reported 138 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of infections to 4,070, including 89 deaths and 2,253 recoveries, the health ministry said Thursday.

The country decided on Wednesday to purchase a possible vaccine against COVID-19 via the European Commission's (EC) joint procurement mechanism, the government said in a release.

It was also decided to diversify purchases from different manufacturers selected by the EC and with which the EC had already reached preliminary vaccine purchase and sale agreements.

Mexico

Mexico's confirmed coronavirus caseload rose to 710,049 on Wednesday, according to updated data from the health ministry, along with a reported death toll of 74,949.

Authorities reported 4,786 new cases along with 601 deaths on Wednesday, but the true figures are likely significantly higher due to little testing.

Morocco

Morocco reported 2,397 new COVID-19 cases and 29 deaths on Wednesday, raising the tally of infections to 107,743 and the death toll to 1,918.

The total number of recoveries increased by 2,361 to 88,244, said the Ministry of Health in a statement.

Poland

Poland reported 1,136 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, according to the Health Ministry's Twitter account, the highest daily increase since the pandemic began.

In total, Poland has reported 82,809 COVID-19 infections, including 2,369 deaths.

Slovakia

Slovakia, which has one of Europe's lowest death tolls from the novel coronavirus, reported its highest daily tally of COVID-19 cases for a second day in a row on Thursday, registering 360 positive tests in the previous day.

Since the start of the pandemic in March, Slovakia has recorded 7,629 cases, from which 3,978 patients had recovered and 41 deaths have been reported. The country has faced a spike in cases this month although at a lower per capita rate than other countries in Europe.

Spain

Spain’s Madrid region on Wednesday requested urgent help to hire hundreds of foreign doctors and reinforce police as they registered 1,290 new coronavirus infections and considered extending a partial lockdown to more areas.

Representing over a quarter of Spain’s 4,143 new cases in the past 24 hours, the capital region has been hardest hit by a second wave of COVID-19, with the number of daily deaths and infections soaring to levels not seen since May.

Madrid has already restricted movement between and within some districts where about 850,000 people live since midnight on Monday.

Ignacio Aguado, deputy head of the regional government, told reporters the region needed 300 doctors from outside the European Union who had worked in the first wave of the pandemic, but could not hire them immediately due to complex regulations.

He also asked the central government for an additional 222 national police officers to enforce quarantines and fines in districts now back under partial lockdown.

On Monday, Madrid authorities asked the central government for help from the army to fight the coronavirus surge in and around the Spanish capital, where the partial closure of some poorer areas has provoked protests.

This Sept 23, 2020 photo shows shows the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne where some 2500 students have been placed under quarantine after several outbreaks of the coronavirus were reported there following private parties. In the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. (FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)

Switzerland

Switzerland has quarantined the entire undergraduate body of one of its premier hospitality management schools just days after their return from summer recess, regional officials said on Wednesday, following a COVID-19 outbreak linked to one or more parties.

All 2,500 undergraduate students at the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne must remain in their housing, including on-campus accommodation, until Sept 28, authorities for the canton of Vaud said in a statement.

Tunisia

Tunisia's health ministry reported on Wednesday 1,219 new COVID-19 cases and 10 more deaths, raising the total infections to 12,479 and the death toll to 174.

"An average of more than 50 coronavirus infections per 100,000 inhabitants have been recorded in 24 provinces, with an increase in the number of cases that require hospitalization," said Nissaf Ben Alaya, director general of the National Observatory of New and Emerging Diseases.

UN

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged on Wednesday joint efforts to address the infodemic, mitigating the harm done to people by misinformation and disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.

"COVID-19 is not just a public health emergency -- it is a communications emergency too," Guterres said in a message to a World Health Organization event on infodemic management.

He noted that as the virus spread across the globe, "inaccurate and even dangerous messages proliferated wildly over social media, leaving people confused, misled and ill-advised".

"The antidote lies in making sure that science-backed facts and health guidance circulate even faster, and reach people wherever they access information," said the UN chief, adding this is even critical "as we work to build public confidence in the safety and efficacy of future COVID-19 vaccines."

He also underscored the importance of fighting misinformation with truth by working with media partners, individuals, influencers and social media platforms.

US

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he may or may not approve any new, more stringent FDA standards for an emergency authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine, saying such a proposal would appear political.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to issue final rules in coming days for issuing an emergency-use authorization for a coronavirus vaccine. Companies including Pfizer Inc, Moderna Inc and AstraZeneca Plc have vaccine candidates in late-stage trials. Some of the studies could produce data on their efficacy as soon as October.

"That sounds like a political move. Because when you have Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, these great companies, coming up with the vaccines, and they've done testing and everything else, I'm saying why would they have to be adding great length to the process," Trump said at a White House news conference.

Trump's remarks came as coronavirus cases in the US surpassed 6.94 million while deaths topped 201,000.

Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said a majority of Americans remain susceptible to COVID-19.

New York City is investigating big increases in several south Brooklyn communities with large Orthodox Jewish populations. Mayor Bill De Blasio said the clusters demand action, including stepped-up testing, education and enforcement.

Meanwhile, Missouri Governor Mike Parson, who has resisted calls for a mask mandate in his state, said he and his wife have been infected and are in quarantine.

Belarus 

Belarus reported 294 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the total caseload to 76,651, according to the country's health ministry.

Meanwhile, there have been 169 new recoveries in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 73,733.

So far, 802 people have died of the disease in the country, including six over the past 24 hours, the ministry said.

As of Thursday, 1,776,271 tests for the virus have been conducted across the country, including 16,878 over the past day, according to official figures.  

Georgia 

Georgia reported a record high of 259 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing its total to 4,399, according to the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC).

The NCDC said 164 of all the new cases were confirmed in the western region of Adjara.

As of Thursday, 1,705 patients have recovered, while 25 others have died of the disease, it added.

Uganda 

Uganda recorded 185 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 7,064, the ministry of health said in a statement.

A total of 184 contacts and alert cases and a returnee from India tested positive for the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, the ministry said in the statement.

According to the ministry, all the samples collected from cross border cargo truck drivers at Uganda's common border point of entry, tested negative for the virus.