Latest On Coronavirus

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 31st October, 2020) The death toll from the coronavirus infection in the world topped 1.185 million, over 45.3 million cases of infection were detected, and almost 30.4 million of those patients were cured, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University, which tracks and compiles data from federal and local authorities, media and other sources.

As of 19:30 GMT Friday, the number of cases globally is 45,360,632, including 1,185,053 fatalities.

The United States still has the highest case count in the world, with 9,007,298, including 229,293 fatalities and 3,554,336 recoveries.

Lebanon and Botswana have joined the World Health Organization's COVAX initiative for the equitable global distribution of prospective COVID-19 vaccines, bringing the total number of participating states to 186, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Any vaccine against COVID-19 earmarked for use in the European Union must comply with the bloc's quality standards and approval procedures, including those that are produced by non-EU countries, European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro criticized Facebook for censoring several publications concerning the DR10 molecule, which, according to Venezuelan scientists, eliminates COVID-19 effects.

Russia has registered 18,283 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, up from 17,717 yesterday, breaking the record for a second consecutive day and taking the cumulative total to 1,599,976, the country's coronavirus response center said.

The United States this week recorded its highest-ever number of new COVID-19 cases in a single day, reporting nearly 90,000 new infections, data from the Johns Hopkins University showed.

Germany has confirmed 18,681 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours marking the largest daily increase since the start of the outbreak, with the total count reaching 499,694, the Robert Koch Institute said.

Health authorities in Slovakia have confirmed 3,363 new coronavirus cases over the past day, which marks an all-time record for this Eastern European country.

The Czech parliament extended the coronavirus-induced state of emergency until November 20. The state of emergency in the Czech Republic has been in place since October 5.

At least six people have been detained in the center of Bilbao in the Basque Country during the protests against the introduction of curfew and other measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, Spanish channel RTVE reported.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov expressed the belief, in his interview with Sputnik, that terrorist organizations were trying to use the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen their influence and recruit new supporters among those rejecting their governments' crisis response.

Governments across the globe should recognize the long-term health effects of COVID-19 and make sure that patients who are still experiencing difficulties months after battling the disease have access to Primary health care services when required, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said.

Germany's GDP fell 4.1 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2020, according to data from the country's Federal Bureau of Statistics (Destatis).

Ending UK government's COVID-19 job retention scheme amid the second wave of the pandemic and with redundancies on the rise will put the United Kingdom's economy on the brink of a double-dip recession, the Guardian newspaper said.

Belgium began sending coronavirus patients to Germany due to overcrowded domestic hospitals, Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has observed that the early voting process in the United States appears to have been undertaken with great care and all necessary precautions over COVID-19, Michael J. Ryan, the executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, said.

The international team of experts probing COVID-19 origin held first virtual meeting with Chinese colleagues on Friday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Small businesses in the United States can now borrow a minimum of $100,000 from the Federal Reserve to help offset the financial stress from the measures implemented to curb the novel coronavirus.

Russian state development corporation VEB and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Interbank Consortium (SCO IBC) have signed a roadmap for overcoming the consequences of the pandemic crisis and a document expanding the use of national currencies within the SCO space, VEB said.