Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council meeting via videoconference at the Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Nov 10, 2020. (ALEXEI NIKOLSKY, SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POLL PHOTO VIA AP)

UNITED NATIONS / NEW YORK / BERLIN / LONDON / PAIRS / CAIRO / SAO PAULO / BUDAPEST / FRANKFURT / ZURICH / MOSCOW / BRUSSELS / GABORONE / STOCKHOLM / ADDIS ABABA / KAMPALA / LISBON - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said all Russian vaccines against COVID-19 were effective, adding that the country would soon register a third shot against the virus, the RIA news agency reported.

Russia is rolling out its Sputnik V vaccine for domestic use despite the fact that late-stage trials have not yet finished, and on Tuesday said it was more than 90 percent effective.

"There are already two registered vaccines. And studies have already shown and confirmed that, firstly, these vaccines are safe and have no serious side-effects after use, and secondly, they are all effective," said Putin via videoconference at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit meeting.

Russia said its Sputnik V vaccine was more than 90 percent effective

Putin also said Moscow was ready to cooperate on coronavirus vaccines and agreed with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan that the jab should be made widely available for all of humankind, TASS reported.

Earlier in the day, Russia reported 20,977 new cases, including 5,902 in the capital Moscow, bringing the national tally to 1,817,109. Authorities also reported 368 more deaths, lifting the toll to 31,161.

In an effort to curb the virus' spread, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said restaurants and nightclubs in the capital will be forbidden from serving customers between 11 pm and 6 am for two months. He wrote on his personal website that these measures would be in place from Nov 13 until Jan 15. During that period, schoolchildren would also have to stick to online remote learning.

A health worker injects a person during clinical trials for a COVID -19 vaccine at Research Centers of America in Hollywood, Florida, US, on Sept. 9, 2020. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

Global tally

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide has surpassed 50.7 million while the toll has topped 1.26 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. 

Africa tally

The number of confirmed cases recorded across the African continent reached 1,891,744, along with 45,609 deaths, as of Tuesday afternoon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

Botswana

Botswana has signed an agreement with the global vaccine distribution scheme co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO), giving it the option to buy coronavirus vaccines for 20 percent of its population, a senior health official told Reuters.

Botswana made an upfront payment to COVAX this week and will have the option to secure roughly 940,800 vaccine doses under a two-dose regimen, Moses Keetile, deputy permanent secretary in the health ministry, said 

The southern African country, with a population of around 2.3 million, has registered around 7,800 cases with 27 deaths.

Unlike many other African countries, Botswana does not qualify for subsidized vaccines under the COVAX scheme because it is classified as an upper middle income country like neighbours Namibia and South Africa.

Botswana made an upfront payment to COVAX this week and will have the option to secure roughly 940,800 vaccine doses under a two-dose regimen, Moses Keetile, deputy permanent secretary in the health ministry, said in an interview.

Botswana went for the optional purchase model to allow it to opt out at a later stage if necessary, Keetile said, adding that it would ask development partners to contribute towards payments to the facility that are outstanding.

Portugal

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Tuesday the country was preparing for a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that the country was better equipped to fight the next wave.

According to Costa, the country now has more health professionals to aid in the fight against COVID-19, and the availability of hospital beds and ventilators has increased.

Portugal reported on Monday 63 more deaths and 4,096 new cases, bringing the country's toll and caseload to 2,959 and 183,420, respectively, according to the Directorate-General for Health (DGS).

With daily infection numbers rising and hitting new records in the past weeks, Portugal has returned to a 15-day state of emergency starting from Monday with a curfew imposed in 121 municipalities, the first time in history.

READ MORE: New Dutch cases fall sharply after lockdown, data show

France

A criminal investigation into whether the public officials who orchestrated France's response to the COVID-19 crisis committed offences including manslaughter and endangering lives will be split into four inquiries, the public prosecutor said.

Remy Heitz said the investigation, still at a preliminary stage, would focus on the impact on the general public, healthcare workers, public servants and those who were sickened or died from COVID-19.

Earlier in the day, Paris hospital director Julien Lenglet told RMC Radio that the traditional Christmas and New Year’s celebrations should be canceled this year over fears it could lead to another resurgence in COVID-19.

Lenglet said there was a risk that Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties - known in France as “Saint-Sylvestre” - could end up as a “giant, intergenerational cluster that could be at the origins of a potential new third wave” of COVID-19.

France is seeing some signs that measures to keep the spread of the coronavirus in check are working, Director for Health Jerome Salomon said on Monday

France entered a second, national lockdown to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus at the end of October, but some politicians and health experts are hoping that by doing so, the COVID-19 numbers might start to come down, allowing allow the country to reopen in time for the Christmas season.

France is seeing some signs that measures to keep the spread of the coronavirus in check are working, Director for Health Jerome Salomon said in a briefing on Monday. In French cities where a curfew was instated mid-October, there’s a slowdown in virus activity, he said.

Salomon also asked people to remain vigilant by adding that the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in France is still to come.

France has registered a total 1.81 million confirmed cases, according to Salomon, indicating an increase of 20,155 cases on Monday. He said hospitalizations rose to 31,125, while the number severely ill COVID-19 patients in intensive care climbed to 4,690. Both numbers are the highest since April.

Prime Minister Jean Castex will hold a news conference at 6pm local time on Thursday (1700 GMT), according to this office.

Sweden

Sweden, whose soft-touch virus approach has placed it in the global spotlight, recorded new 15,779 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday as a resurgent pandemic stretched testing to the limit in many hard-hit and densely populated regions.

The number compares with 10,177 cases for the corresponding period last week. Another 35 deaths took the death toll to 6,057.

Sweden tightened recommendations for three more regions, meaning inhabitants in 13 out of 21 regions now are advised to limit social interaction outside the family as much as possible

Meanwhile, Sweden also tightened recommendations for three more regions, meaning inhabitants in 13 out of 21 regions now are advised to work from home, avoid public transport and limit social interaction outside the family as much as possible.

Several regions are struggling to keep up with demand for testing even as it hit a record last week, forcing authorities in the biggest cities and hard-hit areas such as Ostergotland to restrict bookings amid a scramble to raise capacity.

Hospitals in the Swedish capital are struggling to cope with a surge in infections after seeing an increase of around 75 patients requiring hospital care since the end of last week, the local authorities said on Monday. 

"The pressure on our front-line hospitals is significant," Bjorn Eriksson, the director of healthcare for the region of Stockholm, said in a statement. 

Uganda 

Uganda on Tuesday lifted the ban on the exportation of migrant workers after an eight-month suspension in efforts to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Frank Tumwebaze, minister of gender, labor and social development, said in a statement that all licensed companies involved in the sourcing of external employment for Ugandan migrant workers will resume labor export following further easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

Uganda has registered 14,574 confirmed cases, including 133 deaths and 7,771 recoveries. A total of 971 health workers had contracted COVID-19, with at least nine succumbing to the respiratory disease.

Uganda said late on Monday hospitals in the country were overwhelmed by a spike in new cases.

Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said in a statement that the major transmissions remained in the capital city of Kampala as well as the metropolitan area. The country's northwestern, eastern and northeastern parts also remained hotspots.

Medicago vaccine

Canadian drug developer Medicago said on Tuesday a combination of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine and GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) vaccine booster produced virus-neutralizing antibodies in all healthy volunteers in an early-stage study.

The company said it planned to move into mid-to-late-stage trials with a lower dose version of its vaccine, along with the GSK adjuvant.

"What we're most encouraged with is that we are able to go with the lowest dose for our phase 2/3 trials," Medicago's Chief Executive Officer Bruce Clark told Reuters.

Medicago did not disclose full safety data, but said side effects were mainly mild to moderate.

Oxford's testing

The University of Oxford said on Tuesday it had partnered with Thermo Fisher Scientific to ramp up the university's capacity to deliver COVID-19 testing data.

The partnership will help Oxford increase its testing capacity to up to 50,000 tests per day.

Oxford said in a statement the collaboration would help Britain in its plans to tackle the coronavirus. 

Switzerland & Liechtenstein

Coronavirus infections in Switzerland and neighboring principality Liechtenstein rose by 5,980 cases in a day, data from Swiss health authorities showed on Tuesday.

The new cases pushed the tally to 235,202, while the death toll rose by 107 to 2,683.

Hospitalizations swelled by 243 to 9,448 as the government deployed army personnel to help the hard-pressed healthcare system cope with the surge in admissions.

Hungary

Hungary has reported 103 additional COVID-19 deaths, the government said on Tuesday, ahead of an expected partial lockdown to slow the pace of infections.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has announced a limited lockdown from Wednesday to avoid hospitals being overwhelmed. The new measures include the closure of secondary schools, a curfew from 1900 GMT until 0400 GMT and a ban on gatherings.

The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 rose to 6,153 on Tuesday, with a record number of 461 patients on ventilators, the government said, after Budapest increased hospital provision for COVID-19 patients at the weekend.

By Monday, Hungary had reported the third-highest COVID-19 death rate per 100,000 people in Europe for the last 14 days based on data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, a European Union agency.

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine

BioNTech, first in the race to produce evidence of a working COVID-19 vaccine, is planning to price the two-shot regimen below "typical market rates" and would differentiate pricing between countries or regions.

Speaking at a Financial Times online event, the German biotech firm's strategy head Ryan Richardson said the price tag of the vaccine, which is co-developed with Pfizer and which has yet to win regulatory approval, would reflect the financial risks that its private-sector investors have incurred.

EU

The European Commission will discuss on Wednesday the adoption of a contract for the supply of the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, a spokesman for the EU executive said on Tuesday.

UK

People in Britain will be able to decide whether they want to have the coronavirus vaccine or not, health minister Matt Hancock said on Tuesday, adding that children will not need to be vaccinated. 

"We're not proposing to make this compulsory, not least because I think the vast majority people are going to want to have it," Hancock told BBC TV on Tuesday.

The British government has asked the National Health Service (NHS) to be ready to deploy any COVID-19 vaccine from the start of December and it will then roll it out, starting with the most vulnerable, Hancock said. 

Britain expects to have 10 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech's candidate COVID-19 vaccine available by the end of the year

There were many hurdles still to clear and the government would not deploy the shot until it was confident in its clinical safety, he said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain was ready to roll out a mass COVID-19 vaccination program but it was too early to rely on a vaccine as a solution to the pandemic. 

Britain expects to have 10 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech's candidate COVID-19 vaccine available by the end of the year, but Johnson said there were several hurdles to go after its positive clinical trial results.

An 80 percent uptake of a COVID-19 vaccine may be needed to protect communities from the novel coronavirus, but volatile levels of misinformation and vaccine mistrust could undermine efforts to tackle the pandemic, British scientists said on Tuesday.

A report by scientific institutions the British Academy and the Royal Society found that, in part due to circulating misinformation and behavioural factors, around 36 percent of people in Britain say they are either uncertain or very unlikely to agree to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Also on Tuesday, Hancock said Britain will start rolling out twice-a-week COVID-19 tests to all NHS staff from Tuesday, in order to protect patients and health workers.

UK reported 21,350 new COVID -19 cases on Monday compared with 20,572 a day earlier. 

In Wales, the education minister announced Tuesday the British region has canceled all school exams next summer with grades to be based on classroom assessments instead to ensure fairness during the pandemic.

WHO

The resumed session of the 73rd World Health Assembly opened on Monday to address some of the most pressing global health issues and emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic that had claimed over 1.25 million lives and infected more than 50 million people worldwide.

The six-day session of the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), is the resumption of a shortened two-day event earlier in May. Like the May event, the resumed session took place virtually.

Arcturus vaccine

US biotech firm Arcturus Therapeutics said it expects to start distributing its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the first quarter of next year after early stage trials showed promising results. 

The firm said in a statement on Monday it had struck supply deals with Israel and Singapore - where it is working on the vaccine with a university and has been conducting trials - and was urgently working to start later stage trials. 

The California-based company's announcement came as Pfizer said its COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90 percent effective based on initial trial results, a major victory in the war against a virus that has killed over a million people and battered the world's economy.

US

The total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States reached a grim milestone of 10 million on Monday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

Daily US cases reached a new high, with more than 142,000 new infections reported Monday -- the fifth straight day with a tally over 100,000.

The country is also on the brink of record COVID-19 hospitalizations this week, with numbers soaring in populous Midwest states including Illinois and Michigan as well as along the US-Mexico border.

Texas recently overtook California to become the US state with the most cases, standing at 992,741. California reported 976,576 cases, and Florida registered 843,897 cases, followed by New York with 529,036 cases.

Other states with over 220,000 cases include Illinois, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, the CSSE data showed.

Meanwhile, US regulators on Monday authorized emergency use of the first experimental antibody drug for COVID-19 in patients who are not hospitalized but are at risk of serious illness because of their age or other conditions.

US Housing Secretary Ben Carson tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, US news outlets reported, the latest victim in another coronavirus outbreak affecting the White House and top advisers to President Donald Trump.

By far, the United States remains the nation worst hit by the pandemic, with the world's most cases and deaths, making up nearly 20 percent of the global caseload and death toll, respectively.

READ MORE: Pfizer says COVID-19 vaccine more than 90% effective

Spain

Spain would get the first vaccines developed by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in early 2021, Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Tuesday. 

The country would initially get 20 million vaccine doses, enough to immunize 10 million people, Illa said in an interview with state broadcaster TVE.

Spain's coronavirus death toll rose to 39,345 on Monday, an increase of 512 compared with Friday, according to Health Ministry data. 

But the number of deaths during the past seven days was slightly down at 1,054 on Monday compared with Friday's 1,088. The total cumulative number of cases rose to 1,381,218 on Monday from 1,328,832 on Friday. 

Spain, one of the hardest-hit countries by COVID-19, at the end of October imposed a six-month state of emergency, giving regions legal backing to implement curfews and restrict travel in a bid to control the spread of COVID-19.

Germany 

German Health Minister Jens Spahn expects the European Commision to sign a purchase agreement with BioNTech and its partner Pfizer for its potential vaccine against COVID-19 "in the coming days."

The European Commission is in final stage talks with BioNTech-Pfizer over the supply of 200 million doses of their potential COVID-19 shot, with an option to buy another 100 million.

The health ministry has approached the military for help in ensuring safe storage of potential vaccines against COVID-19, a spokesman for the defense ministry in Berlin said on Tuesday.

The availability of a vaccine against the coronavirus would be a game changer for Germany's economy, boosting growth significantly, the head of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) said on Tuesday.

German logistics group Deutsche Post AG said on Tuesday it was well prepared to distribute potential vaccines against COVID-19 and was talking to pharmaceutical companies and governments on the details, including the need for cooling.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has increased by 15,332 to 687,200 while the death toll has risen by 154 to 11,506, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday.

This undated file photo shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he has tested positive for COVID-19 and was self-isolating. Zelenskiy is feeling fine and will continue to work remotely, according to a statement from his office. The country's finance minister, the defense minister and Zelensky’s top aide were also reported to be infected.

Ukraine registered a record 10,842 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, its health minister said on Tuesday. Maksym Stepanov said a total of 479,197 cases had been registered in Ukraine as of Nov 10, with 8,756 deaths.

Italy

Italy ramped up coronavirus restrictions in Tuscany and four other regions, effective on Wednesday, to rein in the second wave of the pandemic, a health ministry source said on Monday. 

Last week, the government imposed nationwide curbs including a nightly curfew, and divided the country into three zones based on the intensity of their COVID-19 outbreaks, calibrating additional limitations accordingly.

Italy registered 25,271 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, marking a moderate slowdown compared to the 32,616 new cases reported a day earlier, the Health Ministry said Monday.

The total number of active cases in the country thus reached 573,334, the vast majority of which (542,849) are currently isolated at home with no or mild symptoms.

The number of patients in intensive care units, however, grew by 100 on Monday against the previous day, reaching 2,849, the latest data showed.

A total of 10,215 new recoveries were recorded, pushing the total to 345,289 since the pandemic broke out in Italy in late February.

Monday also saw 356 additional fatalities, which brought the country's death toll to 41,750.

Ireland

The number of people in Ireland claiming temporary coronavirus-related jobless benefits rose at the slowest pace since a move to the highest level of COVID-19 restrictions three weeks ago, increasing by 4 percent to 342,505, data showed on Monday. 

The limiting of restaurants to takeaway and closing of non-essential retail until Dec. 1 has forced almost 100,000 more people to sign up for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP), fewer so far than the 150,000 estimated by government when it introduced the new curbs.

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic reported 6,048 new coronavirus cases for Nov. 9, a drop of more 3,000 from a week earlier, Health Ministry data showed on Tuesday. In total, the country of 10.7 million has recorded 420,875 cases after showing one of Europe's highest infection rates for several weeks. 

The ministry also reported 216 more deaths, including 95 on Monday as well as revisions to previous days. Overall, 5,074 people have died in relation to COVID-19.

Bulgaria

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, who has been treated at home for two weeks, still hasn’t recovered from the virus and tested positive again on Sunday, the local 24 Chasa newspaper reported, citing unnamed people from his team.

The Balkan country reported 106 Covid fatalities Monday, the first time the daily death toll has exceeded 100.

Argentina

The eventual vaccination campaign against COVID-19 will be "the most important in Argentine history," the Health Ministry's Secretary of Access to Health Carla Vizzotti said Monday.

The ministry is coordinating a vaccination campaign with health authorities in the country's 23 provinces and the capital city of Buenos Aires, Vizzotti told a press conference.

"We have been working for months with the immunization programs of the 24 jurisdictions to continue planning this, which is going to be the most important vaccination campaign in Argentine history and it is going to be a very, very big challenge," she said.

On Sunday, Santiago Cafiero, head of the Cabinet of Ministers, said that Argentina was working with different countries and laboratories to secure access to anti-coronavirus vaccines.

Chile

Chile's Ministry of Health is working on a plan to warn people about the increased risk of contracting the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) during the end of year holidays and the austral summer season, Deputy Health Minister Paula Daza said on Monday.

"Just like we did for the 18th (of September national holidays) and for the plebiscite (in October), we are now going to do for the Christmas holidays, which we know can be a difficult time (because) people go out and they crowd together while shopping," Daza told a local radio station.

The "risk communication" plan will also call for stepped up social distancing measures during the summer breaks, she added.

"What we don't want is to have an increase in cases like in Europe, where it has been really brutal ... If we relax, we could backslide and have what Europe has," warned Daza.

ALSO READ: Germany approves 3rd trial of COVID-19 vaccine candidate

Mexico

Mexico's health ministry reported on Monday 4,960 coronavirus cases and 198 more deaths, bringing the official toll to 972,785 cases and 95,225 deaths. 

Health officials have said the real number of infections and deaths is likely significantly higher.

Brazil

Brazil on Monday registered 10,917 new cases of coronavirus, totaling 5,590,025, the Health Ministry said. Deaths rose by 231 to 161,106.

Tunisia

Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi said on Monday that the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic in the country may reach 6,000-7,000, describing the health situation as "very dangerous". 

Coronavirus cases have been rising quickly in Tunisia, which had managed to contain the virus earlier this year, and have now reached 70,000 cases and 1,900 deaths in a country of 11.5 million.

Colombia 

The number of COVID-19 infections in Colombia has reached 1,149,063, with 5,176 new cases registered in the past 24 hours, Colombian health authorities said Monday.

Meanwhile, 183 more deaths were reported, raising the nationwide death toll to 32,974, the authorities said, adding that 1,047,017 people have so far recovered from the disease.

Colombia's Minister of Labor Angel Custodio Cabrera tweeted Monday that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and was self-isolating following recommendations by health authorities.

The Colombian government has extended the selective quarantine phase until Dec. 1 to prevent the spread of the disease.

The 'Gam-COVID-Vac', also known as 'Sputnik V', COVID-19 vaccine. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

South Africa

South Africa on Monday launched the country's third COVID-19 vaccine trial, which tests whether an experimental vaccine can protect people from contracting the novel coronavirus or developing serious symptoms.

Phase 3 ENSEMBLE trial with Janssen Pharmaceutica, owned by American multinational corporation Johnson & Johnson, is expected to enrol 60,000 adult volunteers.

It will be a large-scale, randomized, double-blinded and placebo-controlled trial, which will include those over 60 years of age and people with underlying health conditions such as those infected with HIV and on stable medication.

The advocacy group African Alliance and partner the Vaccine Advocacy Resource Group said the new vaccine trial is another crucial step in ensuring a future vaccine which works for South Africans.

Morocco

Morocco's health ministry said the North African country registered on Monday 3,170 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally since March 2 to 259,951.

The number of recoveries from the coronavirus in Morocco increased to 212,905 after 3,104 more were added, while the death toll rose by 84 to 4,356, the ministry of health said in a statement.