COVID-19 Live Updates: WHO Confirms Record 657,312 Coronavirus Cases Worldwide in Past 24 Hours

Hundreds of people protested against new coronavirus restrictions in the southern coastal city of Limassol in Cyprus, the Cyprus Mail newspaper reports.

The protest, held on Saturday evening in front of the district administration office in Limassol, started at 18:00 local time (16:00 GMT on Saturday) and ended at 20:00, when the new curfew entered force.

According to the newspaper, some protesters set trash cans on fire and threw firecrackers prompting police to intervene.

The protesters were chanting anti-government slogans and protesting against the obligatory use of masks and fines for violators of coronavirus restrictions.

Earlier this week, Cyprus ordered an 18-day lockdown starting Thursday for the districts of Limassol and Paphos, which account for nearly 70 percent of recent coronavirus cases in the country. The new measures will last through November 30.

The movement in and out of the districts is banned, except for essential workers. Public gatherings are also prohibited.

Cyprus has more than 7,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and the country’s COVID-19 death toll stands at over 30.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide has risen by  657,312 to 407,939 within the past 24 hours marking the largest daily increase since the outbreak of the pandemic, the World Health Organization said on Saturday.

As of 19:30 GMT, the global tally of COVID-19 infections amounts to 53,164,803.

Most of those news cases were registered in Europe (over 285,000) and the Americas (over 269,000).

Meanwhile, the death toll worldwide has reached 1,300,576, with 9,797 fatalities being recorded over the past pay.

Moscow has registered 75 deaths of patients infected with COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the Russian capital's death toll to 7,787, the city's coronavirus response centre said in a statement on Friday.

"Another 75 patients, who were diagnosed with pneumonia and tested positive for the coronavirus infection, died in Moscow," the centre said.

In the previous day, 69 people infected with the coronavirus died in Moscow.

At least ten coronavirus patients have died in a fire at a public hospital in Romania’s northeastern city of Piatra Neamt, all of them were on lung ventilators, local emergencies services report.

"Ten people were declared dead because of a fire at the hospital, another seven are in critical condition, including the doctor who was on duty," Irina Popa, a spokeswoman for the Piatra Neamt Emergency Situations Inspectorate told Digi 24 TV on Saturday.

According to Popa, all of the dead COVID-19 patients had been on lung ventilators.

Local rescue services said the fire quickly spread through the coronavirus intensive care unit at the hospital in Piatra Neamt because of the abundance of lung ventilators.

According to hospital officials, the fire affected two rooms with lung ventilators where a total of 16 people were undergoing treatment for COVID-19.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. According to local media reports, it was likely triggered by a short circuit. The Prosecutor-General’s Office has opened a criminal case over the fire due to death by negligence.

Romania has a total of over 353,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, while the country’s COVID-19 death toll stands at over 8,800.

Turkey saw a new record of daily coronavirus infections on Saturday, with the number of people who tested positive soaring by 3,116, official figures showed.

The country has recorded a total of 411,055 cases since the epidemic began in March, data shared by the Health Ministry showed. It last saw a daily high of 3,116 cases on April 24.

Further 92 coronavirus patients have died in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 11,419. Another 3,423 patients are in intensive care.

Auch und nicht ausschließlich - Wasserwerfer gegen Querdenkendemonstranten in Frankfurt heute am 14.11.2020 pic.twitter.com/AruzovVfCw

— Anna ⚫️⚪️⚫️ Preußin (@Empathin_) November 14, 2020

Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar at the 15th East Asia Summit expressed the country's readiness to help make the vaccine against coronavirus accessible and affordable to all the countries across the world, the Indian External Affairs Ministry said on Saturday.

The 15th edition of the East Asia Summit, chaired by Vietnam, is taking place in the videoconference format over the coronavirus pandemic.

"On COVID-19, he briefed the EAS Leaders about India's response to pandemic and highlighted India's efforts to support the international community. He reiterated Prime Minister Modi's commitment to help make the COVID vaccine accessible and affordable to all nations," the ministry said in a press release.

India is underway with clinical trials of three coronavirus vaccines in its territory at the moment. Bharat Biotech's vaccine Covaxin and the ZycovD vaccine by pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila are in phase 2 clinical trials. Serum Institute of India vaccine ChAdOx1 is about to finish phase 2 trials and proceed to phase 3. This latter vaccine was developed by the University of Oxford and is also undergoing clinical trials in the United Kingdom.

In addition, in early October, the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Dr. Reddy's received a greenlight from the Drug Control General of India to conduct phase 2 and 3 of clinical trials for Sputnik V in India.

Austria will introduce a nationwide lockdown — the second one in 2020 — starting from November 17 to December 6 due to the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Saturday.

"For the next two and a half weeks, starting next Tuesday and until Sunday, December 6, we will introduce the second lockdown, as it was in the spring," Kurz told reporters.

According to the chancellor, from Tuesday, almost all trade activities will stop, except for shops selling daily necessities, post offices, banks and pharmacies. Hairdressers, beauty salons and other alike enterprises will be closed. Schools are switching to distance learning, restrictions on leaving home without a good reason will operate around the clock.

Congress must now do a Covid Relief Bill. Needs Democrats support. Make it big and focused. Get it done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 14, 2020

A scientist picked by Joe Biden to sit on his coronavirus advisory panel as soon as the US election results are out said the entire country had become a virtual hotspot, in an interview published Saturday.

Michael Osterholm, a member of the 13-strong board and an epidemiologist from the University of Minnesota, told The Guardian newspaper that the time to act is now.

"It’s important to understand virtually the entire US is becoming a hotspot, which means nothing really is a hotspot any more – everything is," he said.

Two potential vaccines against coronavirus have moved into the human trial phase in Iran, one of the worst hit countries at the start of the pandemic, media said Saturday.

The rector of the Iran University of Medical Sciences was cited as saying by the Iranian news agency Fars that many people had volunteered to take part in the vaccine research.

Iran has repeatedly said it is open to buying a COVID-19 vaccine from another country as soon as its efficacy is confirmed by the World Health Organization, while continuing its work on a homemade medicine.

Belarusian authorities on Saturday registered a record 1,248 new cases of COVID-19 in the country, according to the Health Ministry figures.

In a post on its official Telegram channel, the Belarusian Health Ministry said that 112,870 cases have been detected in total, whereas a day prior, that number stood at 111,622. The ministry does not post the number of new cases.

Six people died from COVID-19 complications in the same period of time, according to the figures, with the total death toll from the pandemic now 1,039.

Iran will introduce new COVID-19 restrictions from November 21, with some measures remaining in place until the end of the pandemic, President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday.

"Now we are in such conditions that unfortunately force us to increase the number of restrictions. From Saturday next week, that is, from November 21, a project that will cover not just one province, but the entire country, will start operating," Rouhani said during a meeting of the COVID-19 response center, as broadcast on Iranian television.

The president also said that the project envisions keeping some COVID-19 measures until the coronavirus "ends."

Meanwhile, Alireza Raisi, a spokesman for the country’s COVID-19 response center, revealed the details of the plan — the project envisions dividing the country, according to the infection rate, into orange, yellow and red zones, and the introduction of different restrictions.

Most businesses will be banned in yellow and red zones, where only essential activities will be allowed. At the same time, only religious, sports and entertainment events will be restricted in yellow zones. Raisi specified that Tehran will be a red zone.

To date, Iran has confirmed nearly 750,000 COVID-19 cases, including over 552,000 recoveries and more than 71,000 deaths. Over the past 24 hours, the country registered 11,203 new cases and 452 related fatalities.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo blasted US President Donald Trump over statements that the state will not receive COVID-19 vaccination right after it becomes available.

Earlier in the day, Trump said in a press briefing that his administration will not deliver the coronavirus vaccine until Cuomo indicates his readiness to accept it, apparently taking a swipe at the Democratic governor who has expressed mistrust of the White House.

“None of what [Trump] said is true. Surprise, surprise,” Cuomo told broadcaster CNBC not long after Trump’s comments.

Ukraine on Saturday registered 12,524 new cases of COVID-19, a record increase in a 24-hour period.

According to figures shared by Health Minister Maksym Stepanov, 191 fatalities were registered over that same period while nearly 5,000 people were discharged with recoveries.

This takes the total number of cases in the country since the beginning of the pandemic to 525,176 with 9,508 deaths. Nearly 240,000 people have recovered so far.

Unlike many European countries, Ukraine’s epidemiological situation did not ease up before a second wave of infections but has consistently grown since the first cases were registered in March.

Austria is planning to switch from its current night-time coronavirus curfew and partial shutdown to a full lockdown, according to the government decree.

The curfew will move to an all-day lockdown.

Poland’s Health Ministry reported a record 548 daily deaths from the coronavirus on Saturday, bringing the nation’s death toll past 10,000.

The number of infections has been on the rise across Poland’s entire territory, which is now considered a high-risk "red zone." A record 27,875 new coronavirus cases were recorded last weekend.

Saturday saw the tally climb by 25,571 new cases. Overall, 691,118 people have tested positive for the respiratory virus since it was first detected in a man who returned from Germany in early March.

The number of hospitalized coronavirus patients stands at 22,320, with 2,126 patients on mechanical ventilation. Poland has a total of 2,805 ventilators, according to the ministry's figures.

Russia has registered a new single-day record of 22,702 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,903,253, the country's response centre said on Saturday.

"In the past 24 hours, Russia has confirmed 22,702 COVID-19 cases in 85 regions, of which 5,730 (25.2 percent) were detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms," the response centre said, adding that the case count has reached 1,903,253.

Moscow reported 6,427 COVID-19 cases. The capital was followed by St. Petersburg with 1,852 cases and the Moscow region with 786 cases.

Moreover, the response center reported 391 coronavirus fatalities, raising the country’s death toll to 32,834.

As many as 18,626 coronavirus patients were confirmed to have recovered, bringing the total to 1,425,529.

India has confirmed 44,684 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number of those infected having reached 8,773,479, the country's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.

The death toll from the disease has reached 129,188 people, with 520 new fatalities being recorded over the past day. More than 8.16 million people have recovered in India since the start of the outbreak.

India comes second in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, following the United States with more than 10.7 million COVID-19 patients.

A day earlier, India registered 44,879 new COVID-19 cases, with 547 fatalities.