People wear face masks at the Tijuca neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 8, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP)

LONDON / MILAN /  MOSCOW - Over a million Slovaks took a coronavirus swab on Saturday as the country launched a huge logistical operation to test most of its population over the weekend to reverse a rise in the pandemic.

Authorities say the ambitious plan to test most citizens aged over 10 among Slovakia’s 5.5 million people is the first of its kind in a country of its size.

It is being watched by other nations looking for ways to slow the virus spread and avoid overwhelming their health systems.

More than 40,000 medics and support teams of soldiers, police, administrative workers and volunteers staffed around 5,000 sites to administer the antigen swab tests.

As of noon (1100 GMT), 828,518 people had been tested and 7,947 were positive, Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad told a news conference.

“We have clearly got to over 1 million (as of 1500 GMT) - people’s interest continues,” Nad said, adding that over 3 million people may be tested over the course of the weekend.

Prime Minister Igor Matovic has said he hoped the plan would identify and quarantine enough infected people to avert a strict lockdown for everyone.

The testing was free and voluntary, but the government will impose lockdowns on people who do not participate, including a ban on going to work.

Slovakia reported 2,573 COVID-19 cases on Saturday through PCR testing, bringing the total to 57,664, with 219 deaths.

People wearing protective face masks, shelter from the rain under umbrellas as they walks along Holborn in central London on Oct 21, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP)

UK

The one-month lockdown for England announced by UK's Prime Minister Boris Johnson this weekend could be extended as Britain struggles to contain a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a senior cabinet member said on Sunday.

Johnson announced on Saturday that the lockdown across England would kick in after midnight on Thursday morning and last until Dec 2.

Johnson announced Saturday that England will go into a month-long lockdown next week as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Britain surpassed the 1 million mark.

Under the new measures, which will be effective from Thursday until Dec 2, people in England will only be allowed to leave their homes for specific reasons, such as education, work or food shopping, said Johnson.

Pubs, bars and restaurants will close across the country except for takeaways and non-essential shops, hairdressers and leisure and entertainment venues will also be shut, among other restrictions.

The toughest restrictions in England will be the second of its kind since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

Liverpool-based academic, Professor John Ashton, a global public health expert, said that a nationwide lockdown was urgently needed to curb the surge of coronavirus in the country.

The UK reported 21,915 new cases on Saturday, bringing the total to more than 1 million. About half of the cases were reported this month as the expansion of testing and contact tracing fails to slow the pandemic’s spread.

Another 326 died from COVID-19, 100 more than the previous seven-day average and the third day this week with more than 300.

US

Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, said the nation is “in for a whole lot of hurt” and that Americans need to make an “abrupt turn” to contain the coronavirus’s recent upswing.

“It’s not a good situation,” he told the Washington Post. “All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”

In the interview, Fauci again offered a blunt assessment far different from that of President Trump, who insists the US is “rounding the turn” and that concern about the virus is overblown.

The US reported 99,325 cases Friday, the most since the start of the outbreak for a second day in a row. The record came in the final days of a presidential race in which Trump’s management of the virus is a central issue, and infections and hospitalizations are rising especially fast in several key states, including Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

France

The coronavirus “is circulating slightly more slowly than in the spring,” French Health Minister Olivier Veran told Journal du Dimanche. He said the government hopes the renewed lockdown will allow families to reunite for Christmas.

“The more we abide by the lockdown, the shorter it will be,” Veran said in the Sunday interview. “We are trying to create the conditions for a Christmas that is the least restrictive as possible.”

France’s virus test positivity crept up to 20.2 percent from 20 percent, according to a daily update by the national health agency, even as reported new cases slowed.

Cases increased by 35,641 on Saturday, compared with more than 49,000 the previous day. An additional 223 people died from the virus, bringing the total to 36,788, the agency said on its website.

ALSO READ: UK may impose new lockdown in England next week

Brazil

Deaths in Brazil fell for the sixth straight week and now are a third of the level in July, the nation’s peak for fatalities, according to health ministry data. The 2,574 deaths in the week that ended Saturday was the lowest since April.

The nation, which has the third most cases after the US and India, reported 18,947 new cases Saturday for a total of 5,535,605. Another 407 people died for a total of 159,884. The week’s 136,023 cases were the lowest since May.

Italy

Italy recorded 31,758 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Saturday, its highest daily tally since the start of the health crisis and up from the previous record of 31,084 posted on Friday.

The ministry also reported 297 COVID-related deaths, compared with 199 on Friday.

Italy hasn’t decided whether to impose further restrictions, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in an online forum on Saturday. He said expecting distribution of a vaccine before spring is unrealistic.

Conte will address parliament Monday, earlier than originally planned, on possible new measures against the spread of the coronavirus, the Ansa news agency reported Saturday. The session will be followed by a meeting Monday evening to lay out a new decree to govern the restrictions.

The government could opt for lockdowns of some major cities that have been particularly hard hit, including Milan and Naples.

Greece

Greece's COVID-19 infections hit the 2,000 cases mark on Saturday, as the government announced tougher restrictive measures to control the further spread of the coronavirus.

The National Public Health Organization announced 2,056 new infections in the past 24 hours which bring the country's total to 39,251 since the first case was diagnosed in Greece on Feb. 26.

It is a new daily record high in the past eight months and the 10th time a new record was being set in October. The previous one was registered a day earlier with 1,690 cases.

Six people have died since Friday, bringing the total fatalities to 626.

Currently 135 patients were treated in ICUs, it was also announced.

Amidst the surge of cases, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis earlier on Saturday announced a new set of restrictions that will start on Nov. 3 and will last until December in an effort to avoid a full nationwide lockdown like the one imposed in spring.

The use of protective face masks becomes compulsory indoors and outdoors across the country, while a night curfew from midnight to 5 a.m. which applied only to regions with heavy epidemiological load, is extended nationwide.

All gatherings are suspended, universities will be offering online courses only, while schools will continue to remain open and half of the working force in the public and private sectors will be working from home.

Ireland

Ireland reported the fewest new coronavirus cases in almost a month, even as cases rise elsewhere in Europe. The country reported 416 new cases Saturday, the lowest number since October 4. Ireland was among the first European nations to impose a second lockdown 10 days ago. At that stage, the country was reporting more than 1,000 cases per day.

Austria

Austria imposed a second lockdown starting on Tuesday to curb an “explosive” spread of Covid-19, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Saturday.

Events, hotels and restaurants will have to close, except for takeaway food and business travel, Kurz said. Gyms, cinemas and theaters will be shuttered. Schools for students younger than 14 will stay open this time, as will shops and services like hairdressers. Restrictions on leaving the home apply only at night.

Companies shuttered by the lockdown will receive subsidies equivalent to 80% of their revenue a year earlier if they don’t fire their staff. The state wage subsidy program will be expanded again.

Belgium

Belgium reported 1,105 patients in intensive care units on Saturday, up 48 from the previous day and near the peak reached during the first wave of the outbreak. The nation of 11 million people, which hosts the European Union’s main institutions and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, announced a lockdown Friday amid fears that its health-care system could be overwhelmed.

READ MORE: WHO eyes vaccine insurance coverage for poor nations

Germany

Infections rose by 21,535 in the 24 hours through Saturday morning. The daily increase to 527,916 was less than Thursday’s record of 23,553, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. But it confirms a trend that cases continue to rise at levels which German Chancellor Angela Merkel called a “dramatic situation.” Deaths rose by 129, the second time this month that Germany recorded more than 100 in a day.

Merkel said in a podcast that the government would do “everything necessary” to cushion the blow to businesses from the restrictions. She will meet with business leaders on Wednesday.

Russia

Russia registered a record daily increase of 18,665 COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, the country's COVID-19 response center said Sunday.

Russia has by now reported a total of 1,636,781 cases with 28,235 deaths and 1,225,673 recoveries, the center said in a statement.

Moscow, the capital city, has seen a spike in infections, tallying 5,261 more cases to bring the citywide count to 429,409.

Russia, like many other European countries, has been witnessing a surge in cases since the start of fall.

Portugal 

Starting Nov 4, restrictions that were already in place in three municipalities of northern Portugal will apply to a total of 121 districts that have reported more virus cases, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said at a press conference in Lisbon on Saturday night. These locations are home to about 70 percent of Portugal’s population of 10 million, including the greater Lisbon and Oporto regions.

People in those municipalities are required to stay at home and should avoid moving in public spaces, with exceptions including going to school, work, shopping, exercise, walking pets or attending cultural events.

Shops have to close by 10 p.m. and restaurants by 10:30 pm.

Employees should work remotely when possible.

Costa has said he wants to try to contain the pandemic while avoiding the tougher confinement measures adopted in March and April. Portugal on Friday reported a record number of new confirmed virus cases for a third day and the number of patients in intensive-care units rose above the previous peak recorded in April.

The number of beds at intensive-care units is being increased and the national health service continues to have capacity to respond, the premier said on Saturday.

Poland 

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Poland has increased by 21,897 since Friday, hitting another one-day high and pushing the total infections in the country to 362,731, the Ministry of Health said Saturday.

The previous highest daily spike, at 20,629 cases, was recorded on Friday.

Over the past 24 hours, another 280 people have died from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, bringing the death toll in Poland to 5,631.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that his government's agricultural agencies will buy out flowers from traders who stocked up for All Saints' Day but cannot sell their produce because of the government's decision to shut down cemeteries.

Morawiecki announced on Friday that cemeteries in the whole country will be closed this weekend and on Monday. Sunday marks All Saints' Day, when Poles traditionally visit the graves of their loved ones.

In Poland, one candidate medication developed from the blood plasma of recovered COVID-19 patients is currently undergoing testing in the country's eastern town of Lublin.

Argentina 

Argentina on Saturday reported 211 more deaths from COVID-19, pushing the national tally to 31,002, according to the Ministry of Health.

The ministry also reported 9,745 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the nationwide count to 1,166,924, including 973,939 recoveries.

Buenos Aires province, the worst-hit among all provinces in the country, has so far registered 549,365 infections.

On Thursday, Health Minister Gines Gonzalez Garcia said the situation is improving in the country while urging the population to maintain sanitary measures.