(Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Mike Pence planned to press ahead with campaigning on Sunday, visiting the battleground state of North Carolina after multiple aides tested positive for COVID-19, keeping the pandemic front and center in the presidential race.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
– For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread of COVID-19, click: https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps
EUROPE
– Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said on Sunday he had tested positive for coronavirus and would stay at home for any treatment for the time being, as recommended by his doctors.
– Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced a new state of emergency in an effort to curb soaring infections, imposing local nighttime curfews and banning travel between regions in certain cases.
– Italy on Sunday ordered bars and restaurants to close by 6 p.m. and shut public gyms, cinemas and swimming pools to try to halt a rapid coronavirus resurgence that has pushed daily infection rates to new records.
AMERICAS
– U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the Trump administration was reviewing the latest plan for more COVID-19 relief over the weekend and that she expected a response on Monday, adding that she was still optimistic a deal could be reached.
– Colombia surpassed 1 million infections on Saturday, becoming the eighth country globally to do so, tallying 1,007,711 confirmed infections and 30,000 deaths.
ASIA-PACIFIC
– China detected 137 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases on Sunday in Kashgar in the northwestern region of Xinjiang after one person was found to have the virus the previous day – the first local new cases for 10 days in mainland China.
– Victoria state, Australia’s COVID-19 hotspot, delayed the eagerly awaited removal of strict lockdown restrictions for cafes, restaurants and pubs in the capital Melbourne because of an outbreak in the northern suburbs.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
– Algeria’s 75-year-old President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is self-isolating because some officials in “upper ranks of the government” are sick with COVID-19, he said in a tweet on Saturday.
– Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Saturday for strict punishments for violators of COVID-19 restrictions as the Middle East’s hardest-hit nation battled a third wave.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
– U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said on Sunday it would be clear whether a COVID-19 vaccine was safe and effective by early December, but that more widespread vaccination would not be likely until later in 2021.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
– Cisco’s video-conferencing app Webex clocked 590 million participants in September and is on track to record over 600 million this month, nearly double the numbers recorded in March when countries started shutting down due to the pandemic.
(Compiled by Frances Kerry)
