People line up at a mobile COVID-19 testing site in Miami Beach, Florida, the United States, on Nov 7, 2020. (MARTA LAVANDIER / AP)MEXICO CITY / RIO DE JANEIRO / TRIPOLI / HOUSTON / BUENOS AIRES / SANTIAGO / NICOSIA / LISBON / LONDON / ZILNIA / MILAN / PARIS / WARSAW / SARAJEVO / RABAT / ADDIS ABABA / BUDAPEST / ZURICH / BOGOTA / BERLIN / MOSCOW / KAMPALA / PRAGUE - COVID-19 cases in the United States rose by more than 126,000 for the third straight day Saturday, as the spread of the coronavirus continues to escalate around the nation and infections worldwide closed in on the 50 million milestone. 

The global tally has surpassed 49.8 million while global deaths has exceeded 1.25 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Africa tally

The number of confirmed cases recorded across the African continent has reached 1,855,396 while the death toll has risen to 44, 471, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Saturday.

Argentina

Argentina is looking to have a vaccine against COVID-19 by December, and the country will administer it to the most vulnerable sectors of the population first, said Santiago Cafiero, chief of the cabinet of ministers, on Saturday.

On the same day, it was announced that Argentina has struck a deal with drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc to receive around 22 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine being developed with the University of Oxford, with the aim to start deliveries in the first half of next year.

The drugmaker said in a statement circulated by the government that the delivery time-frame depended on ongoing trials being successful and obtaining necessary approvals by regulatory authorities.

Meanwhile, Cafiero also said that the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires will end Preventive and Obligatory Social Isolation (ASPO), which has been in effect since March 20, and will enter Preventive and Obligatory Social Distancing (DISPO) this month.

Argentina has recorded over 1.23 million confirmed cases and more than 33,000 deaths. On Saturday, 8,037 new cases and 213 deaths were reported.

Austria

Austria reported a record high 8,241 new coronavirus infections within the last 24 hours, the interior ministry said on Saturday.

The number of deaths rose by 37 to 1,377, it said.

Bosnia

Bosnia's Prime Minister Zoran Tegeltija has tested positive for COVID-19 and is self-isolating at home, the cabinet said in a statement on Saturday.

Tegeltija is in a stable health condition with mild symptoms of the coronavirus, according to the statement.

Brazil

Brazil has recorded 254 additional COVID-19 deaths and 22,380 new infections, the health ministy said on Saturday.

A total of 162,269 people have now died from COVID-19 among 5,653,561 million people infected in the South American country, according to the ministry.

Chile

Chile's Ministry of Health reported on Saturday 49 more deaths from COVID-19 were registered in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 14,499.

In the same period, tests detected 1,568 new cases of infection, raising the total caseload to 519,977.

According to the ministry, currently, 734 people are hospitalized in intensive care units, of whom 584 are on ventilators and 100 in critical condition.

Colombia

Colombia's tally of COVID-19 infections rose to 1,136,447 after 8,714 new cases were registered in the past 24 hours, health authorities said Saturday.

Another 190 deaths were logged, raising the death toll to 32,595, the authorities said.

Cyprus

Cyprus Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou issued a statement Saturday hinting at new coronavirus restrictions, after 92 infections were recorded at one of the biggest slaughter houses and a record 314 cases were confirmed across the country in one day.

According to the statement, the slaughter house is located near the capital Nicosia.

One more death was registered, taking the country's toll to 27. The cumulative caseload stands at 5,817.

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic reported 7,722 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the third time this month that the daily tally fell below 10,000, Health Ministry data showed on Sunday.

Saturday's daily tally was the lowest since Nov 1 and brings the total number of cases reported since the outbreak started to 411,220 in the country of 10.7 million. Cases have risen tenfold since mid-September.

The ministry also reported 155 additional deaths on Sunday, which included 99 on Saturday along with revisions to previous days. In total 4,681 people have died.

A health worker displays a sample at a COVID-19 test center located at Orly Airport terminal, south of Paris, Nov 06, 2020. (FRANCOIS MORI / AP)

France

France's cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to 1,748,705 while the death toll topped 40,000, the Public Health Agency said on Saturday.

A total of 306 additional deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, raising the toll to 40,169, the agency said.

New cases went up by a record 86,852. French health authorities did not specify whether the fresh infections were all confirmed in the past 24 hours.

French media reported that data on infections have been incomplete for several days due to a fault that hampered the reporting of test results.

Meanwhile, health authorities said that 20,009 people had been hospitalized over the last seven days and 3,003 were in intensive care.

Georgia

Georgia ordered a curfew from 10 pm to 5 am in Tbilisi and all larger major cities starting Monday to tackle the spread of the coronavirus. 

The country reported 2,859 new cases and 18 deaths in the last 24 hours. 

The restrictions ban all pedestrian and car movement, with exceptions for media, transport of groceries and health-related issues, according to Deputy Prime Minister Maia Tskitishvili. The previous nighttime curfew lasted from March to May.

Germany

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased  by 16,017 to 658,505, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Sunday. The reported death toll rose by 63 to 11,289, the tally showed.

Hungary

Hungary on Saturday registered a record 5,318 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, raising the nation's tally to 104,943, according to the government's coronavirus information website.

Another record 107 deaths were also recorded, raising the death toll to 2,357. 

Currently, 5,612 patients are being treated in hospital, of whom 405 are on ventilators.

Soldiers check the documents of passengers leaving from the main train station in Milan, Italy, Nov 7, 2020. (ANTONIO CALANNI / AP)

Italy

Italy registered 39,811 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Saturday, the country's highest ever daily tally and up from 37,809 on Friday.

The ministry also reported 425 COVID-19 related deaths, down from 446 the day before.

A total of 41,063 people have now died because of COVID-19 in Italy, which has registered some 902,490 coronavirus infections since the start of its outbreak.

The northern region of Lombardy remained the hardest hit area, reporting 11,489 new cases on Saturday, while the neighboring Piedmont region is the second-worst affected, chalking up 4,437 cases.

Libya

The National Center for Disease Control of Libya on Saturday reported 595 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the national tally to 67,039, including 39,243 recoveries and 920 deaths.

Also on Saturday, another 619 new recoveries and five more deaths were registered, according to the center.

Mexico

Mexico's health ministry reported on Saturday 6,810 additional coronavirus cases and 485 more deaths, bringing the official number of cases to 961,938 and the death toll to 94,808.

Morocco

Morocco reported on Saturday 5,836 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily spike since the outbreak began in the country on March 2.

According to new data published by the Ministry of Health, 70 additional deaths were logged in the past 24 hours.

In total, Morocco has recorded a total of 252,185 coronavirus cases, including 4,197 deaths, according to the data.

Poland

Poland reported a record 27,875 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, taking the total number of reported cases over 500,000 as new restrictions came into force to curb the pandemic's spread.

Another 349 deaths were also reported.

Poland has 20,249 occupied hospital beds out of 30,896 available for COVID-19 patients. Some 1,813 of its 2,357 ventilators are in use, health ministry data showed.

Portugal

Portugal will impose localized nighttime curfews from Monday to contain the spread of the coronavirus as the number of cases reached a record high, Prime Minister Antonio Costa announced in the early hours of Sunday.

The overnight curfew, from 11 pm to 5 am, will come into force across 121 of the country's 308 municipalities, including Lisbon and Porto, on Monday as the country enters a 15-day state of emergency. Night workers are exempted.

Costa also announced those in the 121 municipalities - home to about 70 percent of Portugal's population - will not be able to leave their homes between 1 pm and 5 am during the next two weekends - on both Saturday and Sunday.

Portugal, with just over 10 million people, has recorded a comparatively low 173,540 cases and 2,848 deaths but it reached 6,640 cases on Saturday, the highest daily figure since the pandemic started. 

A total of 2,420 people are in hospital, with 366 in intensive care units (ICUs) - more than the April peak of 271.

Russia

Russia reported 20,498 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, slightly below a record high it recorded on Friday, and 286 coronavirus-related deaths.

The fresh infections brought the national tally to 1,774,334 while the official death toll rose to 30,537.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin told state television that coronavirus numbers haven’t stabilized at a certain level and are growing. The capital earlier requested firms to switch more employees to work remotely and extended remote learning in secondary schools.

Slovakia

Slovakia held a second round of nationwide coronavirus testing on Saturday in an effort to curb increasing infections, with more than half a million people screened by noon.

Last weekend, more than 3.6 million people - two thirds of the population - took part in the first round of a scheme.

The government this time called on people from regions where more than 0.7 percent tested positive last weekend to repeat the procedure, testing in 45 out of 79 of the nation's counties. As of noon (1100 GMT), government data showed 553,377 had been tested with 3,677 positive results. 

Prime Minister Igor Matovic said the country now had a way to handle the epidemic. Matovic said the country may need to screen all citizens again in December to allow the government to relax pandemic restrictions.

Overall, Slovakia reported 2,579 COVID-19 cases on Saturday through PCR testing, bringing the total to 73,667, along with 351 deaths.

Switzerland

Switzerland’s Geneva canton leads European regions with the most virus cases in the past 14 days, ahead of Wallonia in Belgium and three other Swiss regions, Radio Television Suisse reported, citing World Health Organization data.

Geneva closed bars, restaurants, cultural venues and nonessential stores earlier this week until Nov 29.

Tunisia

Tunisia posted 1,584 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, taking its tally to 67,918.

The death toll rose by 32 to 1,753.

Health Minister Faouzi Mehdi announced that starting Monday, all arriving passengers will be required to take coronavirus tests and undergo a 14-day quarantine.

Uganda

Uganda reported 214 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing its tally to 14,066, the health ministry said.

The number of recoveries rose by 26 to 7,753, according to the ministry.

So far, Uganda has recorded 131 deaths due to COVID-19.

People without face masks walk along a promenade in Folkestone, Kent, England, on Nov 7, 2020, the second day of a four-week lockdown for England to combat the spread of the coronavirus. (GARETH FULLER / PA VIA AP)

UK

Another 24,957 people in the United Kingdom have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of infection to 1,171,441, according to official figures released Saturday.

The death toll rose by 413 to 48,888, the data showed.

The reproduction rate, also known as the R rate, currently stands between 1.1 and 1.3, according to the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies  (SAGE).

US

Coronavirus cases in the United States rose by 126,460 on Saturday. The daily cases, tallied by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg, reached a record 126,714 on Friday.

New York reported 3,587 cases Saturday, the second day over 3,000 and the most since early May at the tail of the deadly spring outbreak. 

In total, the US has recorded over 9.8 million cases and more than 237,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally.

Texas has had 950,549 confirmed cases, including 18,700 deaths and more than 6,000 hospitalized, as of Saturday, according to Texas Health and Human Services.

Joe Biden, who is projected to win the US presidency, will announce a 12-member task force on Monday, his first step toward fulfilling one of his biggest campaign promises -- to mount an effective response to the pandemic.