Italy reports over 600 coronavirus-related deaths – latest updates

November 12, 2020:

Italy reports 37,978 daily cases, 636 deaths

Italy has registered 37,978 new infections over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said, up from 32,961 on Wednesday.

The ministry also reported 636 deaths, up from 623 the day before and the highest figure since April 6.

Infections in Italy since the disease first came to light in February total 1.066 million, while 43,589 people have now died because of the coronavirus.

There were 234,672 swabs carried out in the past day, the ministry said, against a previous 225,640 .

The northern region of Lombardy, centred on Italy's financial capital Milan, remained the hardest hit area on Thursday, reporting 9,291 new cases, up from Wednesday's 8,180. 

Turkey reports 2,841 more patients

Turkey registered 2,841 more cases over the past 24 hours, according to Health Ministry data.

The country's overall tally now stands at 404,894, the ministry said on Thursday.

A total of 2,181 more patients recovered over the past day, raising the tally to 346,794, while the death toll rose by 88 to reach 11,233.

Almost 148,500 tests were carried out across the country, bringing the total to over 15.71 million.

The figures showed that the number of patients in critical condition currently stands at 3,230, with 4.2 percent this week suffering from pneumonia.

UK adds record cases

The United Kingdom reported 33,470 new cases, the highest daily total to date, as the government struggles to control a second wave of infections going into the winter.

The death toll in Britain is higher than the other worst-affected countries in Europe and the number of people killed by coronavirus is only higher in the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered England back into a month-long national lockdown amid concerns that a rising number of infections could overwhelm the health service.

French PM says too early to loosen lockdown

Prime Minister Jean Castex said there would be no easing of a second lockdown in France for at least two weeks, with the number of people in hospital infected by the coronavirus now higher than at the peak of the first wave.

Castex said that one in four deaths in the country were due to the virus and that while the 'R' rate was now below 1 it was too early to contemplate relaxing measures.

French health authorities reported 33,172 new infections over the past 24 hours. The number of people in France who have died from Covid-19 infections rose by to 425, to 42,960, versus 328 on Wednesday.

Trump campaign adviser Lewandowski tests positive

Corey Lewandowski, one of President Donald Trump's most trusted advisers, tested positive, a source familiar with the matter said.

Lewandowski, who served as Trump's campaign manager for a portion of his 2016 bid for the White House and was advising his current re-election effort, was in Philadelphia challenging ballot-counting procedures last week and believes he was infected while there, the source said. The source said Lewandowski, who tested positive on Wednesday, was experiencing no symptoms.

Greece registers 3,316 new cases, new high

Greece reported 3,316 new cases, its highest daily tally since its first infection surfaced in February, according to health authorities data.

The latest jump in infections brings the total number of cases in the country to 66,637.

It also registered 50 deaths, bringing the number of victims since the onset of the virus to 959.

A resurgence in cases since early October has forced Greece to re-impose a nationwide lockdown until the end of November. 

WHO chief says virus 'not tired', urges vigilance

The general public may be tired of the new coronavirus but should remain on high alert, the chief of the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

"We may be tired of Covid-19 but it is not tired of us. European countries are struggling but the virus has not changed significantly, nor the measures to stop it," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the Paris Peace Forum.

Iran's death toll exceeds 40,000

Iran's death toll from the coronavirus has risen by 457 to 40,121, the highest in the Middle East, with the total number of identified cases reaching 726,585, health ministry data showed.

Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state TV that Iran had identified 11,517 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours.

Philippines reports 1,407 new cases, 11 deaths

The Philippine health ministry has reported 1,407 new coronavirus infections and 11 more deaths, the lowest daily increase in fatalities in nearly three months.

The ministry said total confirmed cases rose to 402,820 while deaths reached 7,721. 

The Philippines has the second-highest Covid-19 cases and deaths in Southeast Asia, next to Indonesia.

German health minister doesn't expect lifting restrictions in winter

Germany's health minister has said he expects restrictions imposed to curb the pandemic to continue through winter, adding that he does not see life normalising in December or January even if the number of new infections would fall.

"I don't see events with more than 10 or 15 people happening this winter," Jens Spahn told RBB broadcaster.

Russia reports record high of 439 deaths, 21,608 cases

Russia has reported a record high of439 new deaths related to the novel coronavirus, taking the official death toll to 32,032.

Authorities also reported 21,608 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, including 5,997 in the capital Moscow, bringing the national tally to 1,858,568.

Czech Republic reports 8,925 new Covid-19 cases

The Czech Republic has reported 8,925 new coronavirus cases for November 11, Health Ministry data showed, well below a record daily tally registered a week ago as the country seeks to push down Europe's highest per-capita infection rate.

Wednesday's tally brings the total number of infections in the country of 10.7 million since the pandemic started to 438,805. A record one-day tally of 15,727 cases was hit on Wednesday last week.

Deaths rose by 247, which included 108 on Wednesday and revisions to previous days. In total, 5,570 have died after testing positive for Covid-19.

US notches up more case and hospitalisation records

The United States has continued to notch up grim records as it battles through the coronavirus pandemic, with a worsening outbreak in the northeast of the country adding pressure on top of an already reeling Midwest.

Reported new Covid-19 infections of 142,279 were at an all-time daily high for the second day in a row and above 100,000 for an eighth consecutive day, according to a Reuters tally.

The number of people hospitalised with the virus also surged, to at least 64,939 by late Wednesday, the highest ever during the pandemic. 

The death toll rose by 1,464.

Ukraine president Zelenskiy hospitalised due to Covid-19

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been hospitalised after he contracted coronavirus earlier this week, local media reported, quoting a presidential official.

The presidential office was unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has registered a record 11,057 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, its health minister said, up from a high of 10,746 reported on November 7.

Maksym Stepanov said the new cases had taken the total confirmed infections to 500,865, with 9,145 deaths.

New Delhi cases spike again ahead of Diwali fest

India has reported 47,905 new cases of coronavirus infection with New Delhi setting another daily record.

The surge of 8,593 cases in the nation's capital is the highest for any major Indian city and comes as people crowd shopping areas ahead of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, on Saturday.

Deaths, too, are climbing again, with 85 in New Delhi in the past 24 hours. Deaths are a lagging indicator of the impact of the virus, due to long periods of illness and medical treatment.

The Health Ministry also reported 550 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking total fatalities to 128,121.

India’s tally of confirmed cases, currently the second largest in the world behind the United States, has exceeded 8.6 million.

Germany's confirmed cases rise by 21,866 to 727,553

The number of confirmed virus cases in Germany has increased by 21,866 to 727,553, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed.

The reported death toll rose by 215 to 11,982, the tally showed.

Athletes arriving for Tokyo Olympics do not have to isolate for 14 days

Athletes who arrive in Japan to participate in the Tokyo Olympics will not have to isolate for the required 14 days after arrival, Olympic organisers said.

The 2020 Games were delayed by a year to 2021 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, a costly postponement that still has many moving parts given the continued spread of the virus.

New York announces new restrictions

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced new Covid-19 restrictions in a bid to curtail the spread of the disease in the state.

According to the new rules, which take effect Friday at 10pm, bars, restaurants, and gyms or fitness centres as well as any State Liquor Authority-licensed establishment will be required to close from 10pm to 5am daily.

However, restaurants will be allowed to provide takeout or delivery after 10pm They will not be allowed to serve alcohol to go.

In addition, indoor and outdoor gatherings at private residences will be limited to no more than 10 people.

Mexico reports over 7,500 more cases

Mexico's health ministry has reported 7,646 more coronavirus cases and 588 more deaths, bringing the official toll to 986,177 cases and 96,430 deaths.

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

Mainland China reports 15 new cases

Mainland China reported 15 new cases for November 11, down from 17 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Thursday.

The National Health Commission said in a statement that one of the new cases was a local infection in Tianjin. The remaining14 cases were imported infections that originated from overseas, the commission said.

The total number of new asymptomatic cases fell to six from15 reported a day earlier. China does not count symptomless patients as confirmed cases.

The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China to date now stands at 86,299, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.

New case in White House

Another White House staffer has tested positive for coronavirus, US media reported Wednesday, the latest case among Donald Trump's administration since last week's election.

Political Director Brian Jack's diagnosis came over the weekend, after he attended a November 3 election day event at the White House, CNN and the New York Times reported.

Another advisor also tested positive, according to the newspaper, but was not identified nor was it stated if the person attended election night events at the president's residence.

These new cases come in addition to recent cor onavirus-positive results for Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and aide David Bossie, who was tapped to lead the president's legal challenges to the election results.

In October, Trump himself tested positive for the virus, which has killed over 240,000 in the US, but quickly returned to the campaign trail after doctors gave him a battery of treatments, including an experimental antibody cocktail.

Trump's wife, son and multiple advisors and aides also have fallen ill with the virus since last month.

The numbers of new infections, which topped 200,000 on Tuesday in the Johns Hopkins University tally, has smashed through records the past two weeks.

Brazil registers 544 new virus deaths

Brazil registered 48,331 new cases on Wednesday, the health ministry said, bringing the total confirmed cases to 5,748,375. Deaths rose by 544 to 163,373.

EU hopes to distribute vaccine within months

The European Union expressed hope that it could start vaccinating people against the virus as early as next year.

The head of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Andrea Ammon, said that a vaccination programme could be kicked off "optimistically (in the) first quarter next year, but I can't be more precise," as trials in both the US and Russia suggested that vaccines currently in the final stages of testing were so far proving very effective

A vaccine is seen as the best chance to break the cycle of deadly virus surges and severe restrictions across much of the world since Covid-19 first emerged in China late last year and ballooned into a pandemic.

So the announcement by US pharma giant Pfizer on Monday that a vaccine it is developing with Germany's BioNTech is 90 percent effective has sparked a wave of optimism across the globe that the pandemic might soon be brought under control.

And the news Wednesday that Russia's own Sputnik V vaccine was 92 percent effective fuelled another rally on the world's stock markets.

Nevertheless, the small glimmer of hope is not yet enough to eclipse the grim statistics still being recorded all across the globe.

UK becomes 5th country to exceed 50,000 virus deaths

The UK became the fifth country in the world to record more than 50,000 virus-related deaths, a level that one of the nation's leading doctors says “should never have been reached”.

Figures from the British government showed that 595 more people in the country died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus, the highest daily number since May. 

The figure took the UK's total death toll from the pandemic to 50,365.

The UK, which has the highest virus-related death toll in Europe, joins the US, Brazil, India and Mexico in reporting more than 50,000, according to a tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University.

The UK’s overall death toll is widely considered to be far higher than that as the total reported only includes those who have tested positive for the virus and doesn’t include those who died of related symptoms after 28 days.

South African president warns of second wave

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa warned of a second wave following a surge of infections in a southern province in the continent's worst-affected country.

The Eastern Cape province recorded a 50-percent jump in coronavirus cases over the past week, Ramaphosa said.

"What we are witnessing in the Eastern Cape should be a wake-up call to all of us, that we cannot relax and we cannot be complacent," he said.

"We can avoid a second wave if we each play our part, if we remember what we need to do to keep ourselves and others safe."

Ramaphosa said new coronavirus cases in the Eastern Cape. already hard hit during the outbreak's peak in July, had risen by 145 percent in the last two weeks compared to the previous 14 days.

A strict lockdown was implemented in March to stem the spread of the virus, which has infected more than 742,300 people and killed just over 20,000 in South Africa.

Ramaphosa said a "resurgence plan" would be implemented to respond to new localised outbreaks.

It would involve intensified contact tracing and testing, and prepare health facilities for potential cluster outbreaks.

Ramaphosa called on citizens not to breach rules on wearing face masks in public and limiting social gatherings.