Live Updates: Global Tally of COVID-19 Cases Exceeds 50Mln, According to Johns Hopkins University

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Another 72 people infected with the new coronavirus passed away in the Russian capital in the past day, the crisis management center said on Sunday.

"In Moscow, 72 patients who had been diagnosed with pneumonia and tested positive for coronavirus died," the center said in an update.

The death toll in Moscow, Russia’s epicenter of the outbreak, now stands at 7,361. The center reported 74 virus-related deaths on Saturday evening.

According to data released by the government on 8 November, 156 people died from the disease, bringing the total death toll to 49,044, while 20,572 tested positive for the virus, which is a significant decrease from the numbers released on Saturday (24,957). The United Kingdom is the worst affected country in Europe in terms of fatalities from COVID-19.

According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 126,000 infections were reported on 7 November. Saturday became the fourth day in a row that the country saw new cases top the 100,000 mark.

The total number of COVID-19 infections across the world has exceeded 50 million, according to a Reuters tally.

The second wave of the coronavirus accounts for a quarter of the overall number of cases. Europe has become the world's worst affected region, while the United States has become the first country to report more than 100,000 new daily cases.

Data from the past week shows that global daily infections are rising by more than 540,000. More than 1.25 million people have died since the disease first emerged in China at the end of 2019.

The measure, which will affect most of the country, will last until 23 November, but may be extended beyond this date if the situation with the coronavirus does not improve.

Under the curfew, residents of 121 municipalities, including the capital Lisbon and the second-largest city Porto, are not allowed to go out from 11 pm to 5 am on weekdays and from 1 pm to 5am on weekends.

"The only way to control the pandemic is to avoid social interaction. These measures are difficult for us, but they are necessary to control the epidemic without declaring a general quarantine", said Prime Minister Antonio Costa, as cited by Efe news agency.

Portugal has a relatively low number of infections (173,540) compared with other European countries, but on 7 November it recorded more than 6,600 new cases, which is the highest number since the coronavirus outbreak began. The death toll stands at more than 2,800.

Iran's daily coronavirus death toll hit a record high of 459 on Sunday, the Health Ministry said, noting that the total number of fatalities from the pandemic is 38,291. The overall number of infected has, meanwhile, reached 682,486.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia has registered 20,498 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, taking the total to 1,774,334, the federal response centre said Sunday.

This is slightly more than the 20,369 cases recorded the previous day, while 11,492 have recovered. In the same period, 286 deaths were registered across the country.