An employee of the Montreal metro offers free masks to traveller who don't have one with them at the Lionel Groulx station on July 13, 2020 as face coverings and masks become compulsory in all public transports in the Quebec province in Montreal, Quebec. (PHOTO / AFP)
CHICAGO / WASHINGTON / BUDAPEST / MEXICO CITY / RIO DE JANIERO / BOGOTA / BUENOS AIRES / CAIRO / BERLIN / LONDON / PARIS / LISBON / SANTIAGO / RABAT / ADDIS ABABA / TIRANA / TRIPOLI / BRUSSELS / PRAGUE / MOSCOW / KIEV / WARSAW / SOFIA - The European Union decided to remove Canada, Tunisia and Georgia from its list of countries whose residents should be allowed to visit the bloc amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to an EU official familiar with the matter.
The EU also opted to reopen its borders to travelers from Singapore as a result of improved virus trends there, the official said on the condition of anonymity because the deliberations on Wednesday in Brussels were confidential. The U.S. will remain blacklisted along with most other countries.
The changes are the first in more than two months to the EU’s recommended travel “white list,” shrinking it from 11 foreign nations at present to nine. The other eight are Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand and Uruguay.
The update -- endorsed by EU member-country envoys at a regular closed-door meeting -- comes amid a resurgence in coronavirus cases in Europe itself and is due to be published in the bloc’s Official Journal within days.
Poland
Poland's total number of confirmed coronavirus infections has doubled in less than three weeks and now exceeds 200,000, the health ministry said, as it announced a new daily record of 10,040 new cases.
Poland has now recorded 202,579 cases and 3,851 deaths, of which 130 fatalities were reported on Wednesday. It passed 100,000 infections on Oct 4.
Poland's lower house of parliament will hold an emergency meeting later Wednesday to discuss a draft bill proposed by the ruling Law and Justice party and designed to unblock the overwhelmed health system.
Government COVID-19 advisor Andrzej Horban said earlier on Wednesday that 10,000 cases a day is the upper limit of the health system's capacity.
People wearing face masks walk on a shopping street in the high risk zone Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Oct 20, 2020. (MARTIN MEISSNER / AP)
Europeans urged to take more action
Leaders and experts in Europe are calling on citizens to be more responsible and make sacrifices to help contain the spread of COVID-19, amid a record increase in new cases in many European countries.
According to a WHO dashboard, as of 3:05 pm CEST on Tuesday, Europe has reported 8.16 million confirmed cases -- including 938,800 infections recorded in the week between Oct 12 and Oct 18, the highest among the WHO's six regions.
Many European countries have in recent weeks recorded spikes in new COVID-19 cases, with some breaking their daily records recorded during the peak of the pandemic earlier this year
Many European countries have in recent weeks recorded spikes in new COVID-19 cases, with some breaking their daily records recorded during the peak of the pandemic earlier this year, including Spain, France, Britain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and the Czech Republic.
ALSO READ: Europe sharpens restrictions to regain grip on pandemic
There have been media reports of failure among European citizens to abide by governments' anti-virus measures, such as social distancing and mandatory mask-wearing.
According to a report by the Guardian newspaper, at least three-quarters of people in Britain who have COVID-19 or are contacts of an infected person have failed to fully self-isolate.
On Oct 15, WHO Regional Director for Europe, Dr. Hans Kluge, said a prolonged relaxation of anti-virus measures "could propel -- by January 2021 -- daily mortality at levels four to five times higher than what we recorded in April" according to projections provided by epidemiological models.
Kluge said simple measures -- such as mask wearing and strict restrictions on social gatherings -- may save up to 281,000 lives by Feb 1 across WHO Europe's 53 member states.
Global tally
Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 40.8 million while the global death toll topped 1.12 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
A health worker injects a person during clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine at the Research Centers of America in Hollywood, Florida on Sept 9, 2020. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)
COVID-19 vaccines
The head of Roche Holding AG warned that widespread COVID-19 shots this year are unlikely, adding to a chorus of caution on vaccines from industry leaders.
Many people’s hopes for a speedy vaccine are still too high, Roche's Chief Executive Officer Severin Schwan said.
It is “completely unrealistic” to expect a COVID-19 vaccine to be widely available by the end of this year, and most people probably won’t have access to a shot until the second half of 2021, Schwan said in an interview with Bloomberg TV anchor Francine Lacqua.
WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that Europe and North America, which are experiencing rapid spikes in COVID-19 cases, can learn from countries and regions in the Western Pacific.
Both Europe and North America are the hot spots for COVID-19, with half of countries in the European region experiencing increases of at least 50 percent in new cases over the past week.
ALSO READ: Spain considers curfews to fight new coronavirus wave
Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, on Monday reiterated the importance of adhering to quarantine rules for those who test positive and those who have come in contact with a positive case.
Contact tracing, isolation and quarantine are often enforced loosely in many European countries, unlike in China and other East Asian nations.
Ryan said that one advantage in Asia is that people and communities there have a high level of trust in and compliance with government. He stressed that if there is one thing that differs in response in Asia and in Europe, it has been that ability to follow through those activities, in particular around quarantining contacts.
Albania
Health authorities in Albania reported 301 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the highest daily tally since the beginning of the pandemic in March, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection said on Tuesday.
Of the new cases, 144 were reported in the capital city of Tirana.
Overall, Albania has recorded a total of 17,651 cases, with 10,225 recoveries and 458 fatalities. The country currently has 6,968 active cases.
During a meeting with the Anti-COVID-19 Task Force, Minister of Health and Social Protection Ogerta Manastirliu said the next three months would be difficult, calling on the public to wear face mask to help reduce the risk of spreading the virus.
Argentina
Argentina reported 384 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, raising its death toll to 27,100, according to the Ministry of Health on Tuesday.
Another 16,337 new infections were reported in the past 24 hours, taking the national caseload to 1,018,999.
Currently, there are 162,252 active cases in the country while 829,647 patients have recovered, according to the ministry.
People wait in their cars to be tested at a mobile COVID-19 testing site in Antwerp, Belgium, on Oct 20, 2020. (VIRGINIA MAYO / AP)
Belgium
Belgium saw 2,774 COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals for treatment as of Monday as infection numbers continued to rise in the country, according to figures released by the country's public health institute, Sciensano, on Tuesday.
That represented an increase of 88 percent compared to the number of hospitalizations on Oct 12, which stood at 1,473, Sciensano's data showed.
Of the 2,774 hospitalized patients, 446 were in intensive care.
Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke told lawmakers on Tuesday that Belgium would need to postpone all non-essential hospital procedures to deal with a surge in infections.
According to Sciensano's data, Belgium's infection tally stood at 230,480 after 8,227 new cases were registered Monday. The death toll rose by 30 to 10,443.
Brazil
Brazil recorded 23,227 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and 661 more deaths from COVID-19, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
Brazil has registered 5,273,954 million cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 154,837, according to ministry data.
The Brazilian government will include China's Sinovac vaccine against COVID-19 in its national immunization program, state governors said on Tuesday after a meeting with the country's health minister, in addition to one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
Bulgaria
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev's has tested negative a second time for the coronavirus and expects his compulsory self-isolation to be lifted, his office said on Wednesday.
The 57-year-old former military pilot halted a visit to Estonia to return home on Tuesday after contact last week with a military officer who later tested positive.
"President Radev is currently under a quarantine and awaits the decision of the local health authorities to lift it after his second test came out negative," his spokesman Kiril Atanasov said.
On Wednesday, the Balkan nation of 7 million people recorded a new record high number of daily infections of 1,336, bringing the total confirmed COVID-19 cases to 31,863, including 1,019 deaths.
Chile
Chilean Health Minister Enrique Paris said on Tuesday that according to the latest figures on the COVID-19 situation in the country, "the variation in new confirmed cases at the national level decreased by 8 percent in the last seven days and 15 percent in the last 14 days."
He said that the country has so far recorded a total of 494,478 confirmed cases of COVID-19, of which 466,643 have recovered and 13,702 have died.
In the last 24 hours, 1,099 new cases were registered across the country.
According to the Ministry of Health, the regions with the highest increase in new cases are Los Lagos, Biobio, Los Rios, and O'Higgins, while the region of Magallanes continues to report the highest number of new cases in the country.
Colombia
The number of COVID-19 infections in Colombia rose to 974,139 after 8,256 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours, Colombian health authorities said Tuesday.
Another 170 deaths were also recorded, raising the death toll to 29,272, authorities said, adding that a total of 876,731 people have so far recovered from the disease.
"We are in a very special moment because we are lowering the epidemic curve, it is a consistent decrease, but still very fragile. So we are not at this moment to play with fire, and we have to be very judicious and responsible," Health Minister Fernando Ruiz said.
Czech Republic
Czech Deputy Prime Minister Jan Hamacek, who is also the interior minister, has tested positive for COVID-19, he confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday.
Hamacek, 41, is chief of the Social Democratic Party, junior partner in the ruling coalition, and is also head of the crisis committee coordinating logistical efforts to counter the pandemic.
The Czech Republic recorded 11,984 fresh infectinos on Tuesday, the highest daily tally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Health Ministry data published early on Wednesday.
The total number of infections rose to 193,946 in the country of 10.7 million people, of which 116,701 are active cases. The toll rose to 1,619 from 1,513 over the past 24 hours, data showed.
The government is due to meet at an extraordinary session at 8:00 am local time (0600 GMT) to discuss the epidemiological situation. Health Minister Roman Prymula had hinted on Tuesday that tougher anti-epidemic measures were on the way.
READ MORE: EU leaders to hold almost weekly videoconferences on COVID-19
Egypt
Egypt reported 158 new COVID-19 infections late on Tuesday night, bringing its national caseload to 105,705, the country's health ministry said.
The new cases mark the highest daily tally since Sept 16, when 160 infections were confirmed.
Meanwhile, 12 more patients have died in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 6,142, while 99 others have recovered, increasing the total recoveries to 98,413, the ministry's spokesman, Khaled Megahed, said in a statement.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia's Ministry of Health said Tuesday that the country's COVID-19 caseload hit 90,490 after 630 new cases were registered.
The ministry said the death toll rose to 1,371 after six additional deaths were reported.
The capital, Addis Ababa, is currently the epicenter of the pandemic with more than 50 percent of all confirmed cases, according to the ministry.
France
France again reported more than 20,000 newly confirmed coronavirus infections in a day, a total of 20,468, after the daily tally dipped to 13,243 on Monday.
Last week, France saw five days with more than 20,000 new cases per day and two days with more than 30,000.
The total caseload now stands at 930,745 and looks set to jump above the 1 million mark before the end of this week if the trend continues.
The health ministry also reported 262 additional deaths, including a multi-day batch of 100 from retirement homes, pushing the cumulative death toll to 33,885.
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 rose by 797 to 12,458, the biggest single-day increase since early April. The number of people in intensive care rose by 78 to 2,177.
Germany
Germany on Wednesday registered 7,595 new COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour span, taking the country's total tally to 380,762, according to data released by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
The death toll rose by 39 in one day to 9,875, according to RKI, the government agency for disease control and prevention.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn has tested positive for the coronavirus and is now self-isolating. He has so far only developed cold symptoms, German news agency dpa quoted the Health Ministry as saying on Wednesday.
Greece
Greece reported 667 cases in the last 24 hours, a new daily high since the beginning of the pandemic.
The overall tally stands at 26,469, of which 528 people have died.
The authorities called Greeks -- and especially those between 18 and 40 years -- to be very careful, wear masks and implement the measures already taken.
People line up to get tested for COVID-19 at the Policlinico Hospital, in Milan, Italy, Oct 20, 2020. (LUCA BRUNO / AP)
Italy
Italy’s coronavirus cases rose again on Tuesday to 10,874, from 9,338 a day earlier, as daily fatalities increased to 89.
As of Tuesday, Italy has registered 434,449 confirmed cases and 36,705 deaths from COVID-19, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said during a press conference in Rome that Italy’s strategy will be focused on localized restrictions rather than the national lockdown measures taken at the beginning of the outbreak in March.
Lombardy, the region around Milan, decided on Monday to introduce a curfew from 11 pm to 5.00 am.
Campania, which includes Naples, said on Tuesday it would follow suit, adding that it would get 100 soldiers to do checks on local COVID-19 measures. Separately, the northern Piedmont region, centered on Turin, announced it would shutter shopping centers at the weekend.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis wore a mask for the first time at a public function on Tuesday when he and other religious leaders attended a prayer service for peace around the world in Aracoeli. Previously, the pope only wore masks in a car taking him to his weekly audiences in the Vatican.
Libya
Libya's National Center for Disease Control reported on Tuesday 957 new COVID-19 cases, raising the country's tally past the 50,000 mark.
The center said another 570 patients have recovered while 14 more have died.
Overall, Libya has recorded a total of 50,906 confirmed cases, including 27,832 recoveries and 746 fatalities, the center said.
Mexico
Mexico's health ministry on Tuesday reported 5,788 additional cases of the novel coronavirus and 555 more deaths in the country, bringing the official number of cases to 860,714 and the death toll to 86,893.
Mexico is doubling down on its public health message to avoid big crowds in order to avert a second wave of infections as annual festivities approach, including the Day of the Dead which falls during Nov 1-2.
"We have early signs of an uptick in the pandemic," Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said, adding that hospitalizations have risen in recent days, reversing a downward trend that began at the end of July.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministry said earlier on Tuesday that Mexico could share some liabilities arising from any adverse side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines used in the country, but it will negotiate the issue once laboratories have finished developing the medicines.
Morocco
Morocco announced on Tuesday 3,254 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally in the North African country to 179,003.
The number of recoveries increased by 2,417 to 148,838 while the death toll rose by 51 to 3,027, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Meanwhile, 592 patients are in intensive care units.
Portugal
Portugal said Tuesday there were currently 39,625 active COVID-19 cases in the country, a decline of 71 cases compared with Monday's figure. It is the first time the number of active cases fell since Aug 15.
According to the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), 1,932 new recoveries were registered in the last 24 hours.
There were 1,876 new cases recorded in the same period, taking the nation's tally to 103,736.
The death toll rose by 15 to 2,213.
Russia
Russia recorded 15,700 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, as well as a daily record high of 317 deaths from the highly-contagious virus.
Since the start of the pandemic, the country of about 145 million people has recorded 1,447,335 infections and 24,952 deaths, the authorities said.
Slovakia
Slovakia reported 2,202 new cases of coronavirus infection on Tuesday, the highest daily tally to date, Health Ministry data showed on Wednesday.
The overall number of people infected since the start of the pandemic rose to 33,602 in the country of 5.5 million, and 98 people have died.
Spain
Spain reported on Tuesday evening that 13,873 new coronavirus cases and 218 deaths were recorded in a 24-hour span, taking the total number of infections to 988,322 and the death toll to 34,210.
The continued increase means that Spain is likely to reach the mark of one million infections as early as Wednesday.
Speaking at a press conference after a weekly cabinet meeting, Health Minister Salvador Illa again warned that "very tough weeks are coming". The government is considering introducing a nighttime curfew across Spain, in a bid to bring down soaring infections, Illa said.
People walk by a sign in Manchester, England, Oct 20, 2020. (JON SUPER / AP)
UK
South Yorkshire in northern England will move into the very high lockdown tier on Saturday, joining Liverpool and Lancashire, to tackle rising levels of COVID-19 infections, the mayor of the Sheffield City Region Dan Jarvis said on Wednesday.
The area has agreed a funding package worth 41 million pounds (US$53.5 million) to support businesses that will have to close and for additional public health measures.
The development came after Prime Minister Boris Johnson forced Greater Manchester into the United Kingdom’s strictest restrictions on Tuesday after his noon ultimatum for the region to accept a deal passed without agreement. The move includes the closing of pubs and bars and bans on all mixing of households.
The UK - the worst-hit European nation during the COVID-19 pandemic with nearly 44,000 related deaths - is now seeing a second wave of the virus, recording 21,331 new cases and 241 deaths on Tuesday.
Ukraine
The number of daily coronavirus deaths in Ukraine jumped to 141 from the previous record of 113 deaths registered on Tuesday, the national security council said on Wednesday.
The council also reported a record 6,719 new coronavirus cases registered in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall tally to 315,826 cases with 5,927 deaths.
Health Minister Maksym Stepanov had warned on Tuesday the number of coronavirus cases may rise to 8,000-10,000 a day in the coming weeks.
Stepanov said Ukraine would introduce stricter lockdown restrictions if cases rise to 11,000-15,000 daily. He warned that the resources of the medical system would run out if the number of daily cases exceeds 20,000.
US
US First Lady Melania Trump on Tuesday canceled her scheduled campaign trip to key swing state Pennsylvania as she is still sick with a "lingering cough", according to her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham.
President Donald Trump announced on Oct 2 that he and Melania had both tested positive for COVID-19. Last week, the first lady said in a statement that she had tested negative for COVID-19.
Nearly 300,000 more people have died in the US in 2020 during the pandemic than would be expected based on historical trends, with at least two-thirds due to COVID-19, according to a report by the US CDC
The United States has reported over 8.26 million confirmed cases and more than 220,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Nearly 300,000 more people have died in the United States in 2020 during the pandemic than would be expected based on historical trends, with at least two-thirds due to COVID-19, a report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released on Tuesday showed, adding that COVID-19 deaths likely were undercounted.
New Yorkers’ risk of death from the coronavirus during spring, the peak of the hard-hit city’s outbreak, was about double that of earlier estimates from other regions, according to a new analysis, published Monday in the medical journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, that highlights the pandemic’s lethal impact.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo blamed President Trump for coronavirus-related deaths in the state, calling him a liar and “super-spreader”. Separately, Cuomo said New York is unable to stop coronavirus spreaders coming from Connecticut and New Jersey and will try to quell the rise in cases in those states.
Meanwhile, California moved San Francisco to its “yellow” tier, the least-restrictive for business. That means the city can reopen non-essential offices at a limited capacity later this month. It also plans to increase capacity for indoor restaurants, museums and places of worship to 50 percent.
In another development, California must halve the number of inmates at San Quentin Prison to protect them from the pandemic that has already burned through the facility, a state appeals court ruled. San Quentin Prison's most recent count reports 2,239 total confirmed cases and 28 deaths.
Hungary
Hungary on Wednesday registered 1,423 new COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour span, raising the national total to 50,180, according to the government's coronavirus information website.
In the 24 hours, a further 48 people had succumbed to the disease, taking the death toll to 1,259 in Hungary, while 14,905 have made a recovery. Currently, 2,023 COVID-19 patients are being treated in hospital, 201 of whom are on ventilators.
"The virus is spreading dynamically throughout Europe," the website said when publishing the latest figures, adding that the goal of the Hungarian government was to keep the country functioning and not let the virus paralyze everyday life.
Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga announced on Tuesday that she had tested positive for COVID-19 and has mild respiratory symptoms.
Austria
Austria reported its biggest daily increase of COVID-19 cases as a further 1,958 people tested positive in the past 24 hours, the Minister of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection Rudi Anschober said on Wednesday at a press conference.
The test positivity rate is increasing sharply and stands "too high" at 9 percent, said the minister.
In the Alpine country, nearly two million COVID-19 tests have been carried out since the outbreak of the pandemic, according to the Ministry of Health.
So far, there have been 69,778 positive test results in Austria. As of Wednesday morning, 925 people had died and 52,617 had recovered from COVID-19.
There are currently 960 people in hospital for coronavirus treatment, 147 of them in intensive care units.
Namibia
Namibian President Hage Geingob on Wednesday said the country had decided to withdraw the mandatory five day COVID-19 retest requirement for all travelers who arrive in Namibia with a negative PCR test result, that is not older than 72 hours.
Speaking at a media briefing, Geingob said travelers with a negative PCR test result that is not older than three days will be permitted to proceed to their final destination in the country.
Namibia is withdrawing the requirement in a bid to attract tourists to visit the country.
Tunisia
Tunisian Minister of Health Faouzi Mehdi announced on Wednesday that Tunisia will be among the first countries to receive the doses of vaccine against COVID-19."
Tunisia has coordinated with the World Health Organization and donors and has mobilized the necessary funds to receive the vaccine against the coronavirus as soon as it will be placed on the market," Mehdi said during a press conference held in capital Tunis.
Slovenia
Slovenia registered its record daily number of COVID-19 cases -- 1,504 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases to 15,983 in the country, according to official figures released on Wednesday.
Wednesday's new cases were up considerably from the previous daily high of 898, recorded last Friday.
Slovenia conducted 5,891 coronavirus tests on Tuesday, with the positivity rate exceeding 25 percent, the figures showed.
The 14-day incidence rate is 423 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, up 14.9 percent. There are currently 8,861 active cases. Hospitalizations have gone up to 333, with 55 patients in intensive care. Eight new deaths took the toll to 200.
Netherlands
COVID-19 infections in the Netherlands kept climbing and reached a new daily record of 8,764 confirmed cases in a 24-hour span, bringing the total infection number to 253,134 since the outbreak of the epidemic, official data showed on Wednesday.
The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) also adjusted Tuesday's number of confirmed cases, which was reduced to 8,175, from the initially reported figure of 8,182.
A further 59 COVID-19 patients had died in the 24 hours, taking the country's death toll to 6,873 since the outbreak of the epidemic, RIVM data showed.
Another 105 COVID-19 patients were admitted to hospital for treatment in the 24 hours, raising the number of COVID-19 patients currently in hospital to 2,013. Of the total, 465 patients were in intensive care.
