More than 73.68mn people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 1,655,425 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
The coronavirus causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease.
Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
The United Kingdom recorded 28,507 new cases yesterday and 489 deaths within 28 days of a positive test for the virus, according to official data.
Thursday’s data had shown 35,383 new coronavirus infections – including around 11,000 previously unreported cases from Wales – and 532 deaths.
Turkey’s daily coronavirus death toll hit a record high of 246 in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed yesterday, bringing the total number of deaths to 17,610.
Turkey also recorded 26,410 new coronavirus cases, including asymptomatic ones, in the last 24 hours.
The country has registered 1,982,090 Covid-19 infections since the beginning of the pandemic in March, the data showed.
Austria will go into coronavirus lockdown for a third time after Christmas, the government confirmed yesterday, just 11 days after the country’s second lockdown ended.
Mass coronavirus tests will be held on January 15-17, allowing those who test negative to be freed from lockdown.
Those who do not get tested must stay in lockdown until January 24, the statement said.
Switzerland headed for a second lockdown yesterday as the government ordered restaurants and sports and recreation centres closed for a month from Tuesday and urged people to stay home.
“Our (infection rate over the last two weeks) is three times higher than Spain’s, and nearly three times as high as France’s and Belgium’s, where it is known that the situation has been very difficult,” Health Minister Alain Berset told a news conference. “We’re far too high.”
Confirmed cases in Switzerland and neighbouring Liechtenstein have passed 400,000 and the death toll has topped 6,000.
Italy reported 674 coronavirus-related deaths yesterday against 683 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections decreased to 17,992 from 18,236.
There were 179,800 swabs carried out in the past day, down from a previous 185,320 the ministry said.
The first Western country hit by the virus, Italy has seen 67,894 Covid-19 fatalities since its outbreak emerged in February, the highest toll in Europe and the fifth highest in the world.
It has also registered 1.92mn cases to date.
Sweden, whose unorthodox pandemic strategy placed it in the global spotlight, registered a record 9,654 new coronavirus cases yesterday, health agency statistics showed.
The increase compared with a previous high of 8,881 daily cases recorded on Thursday.
Sweden registered 100 new deaths, taking the total to 7,993.
Russia reported 28,552 new coronavirus cases yesterday, including 6,937 in Moscow, taking the national case tally to 2,791,220 since the pandemic began.
Authorities also reported 611 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 49,762.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 33,777 to 1,439,938, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Friday.
The reported death toll rose by 813 to 24,938, the tally showed.
South Korea reported 1,062 new coronavirus cases yesterday, its second-highest ever daily tally, as the government warned businesses it was unacceptable for them to try to dodge shut-down orders by tricking the system.
The daily number was above 1,000 for the third straight day for the first time, data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) showed.
The rash of new cases has shaken a country that has for months been held up as a mitigation success story.
Despite its total tally rising to 47,515 infections, South Korea has only suffered 645 deaths.
Thailand has four new local coronavirus infections, health officials said yesterday, just as the country has started reopening for tourists after months of keeping the virus at bay.
Local cases have been in the single-digits in recent months, with most of them found in people observing quarantine after having been in close contact with an infected person.
Most of Thailand’s recent cases have been imported.
Thailand has managed to keeping infections relatively low, reporting a total of 4,297 cases and 60 Covid-19 deaths, but the success has come at a cost to its tourism-dependent economy.
Australia’s most populous state New South Wales (NSW) reported yesterday 10 new cases of the coronavirus as authorities battled to contain a new cluster in Sydney’s northern coastal suburbs.
NSW State Premier Gladys Berejiklian flagged more restrictions might come if the outbreak was not brought under control in the next few days.
Mexico on Thursday reported 11,799 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 718 more fatalities, bringing the country’s totals to 1,289,298 cases and 116,487 deaths.
The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
Brazil recorded over 1,000 new Covid-19 deaths for the first time in over three months on Thursday, as its Supreme Court ruled that vaccinations could be required in the South American country.
Brazil, which has the second deadliest outbreak in the world behind the United States, reported 1,092 coronavirus deaths and 69,826 new confirmed cases, as a second wave that has been gaining steam since mid-November grows increasingly severe.
The pandemic has now claimed 184,827 Brazilian lives, and over 7mn infections.
Colombia’s daily confirmed cases of coronavirus reached their highest level since mid-August on Thursday, as the government warned people against large holiday gatherings.
The Andean country, which has had a total of 1,468,795 confirmed cases and 39,787 deaths, recorded 12,196 new cases on Thursday, according to health ministry data.
India recorded 22,890 new coronavirus infections, the health ministry said yesterday, taking its overall tally to 20,000 short of the 10mn mark.
Deaths rose by 338, taking the total to 144,789, the health ministry said.
South Africa is experiencing a new variant of the coronavirus that is driving a second wave of infections, the health minister said yesterday.
“We have convened this public briefing today to announce that a variant of the Sars-COV-2 Virus – currently termed 501.V2 Variant – has been identified by our genomics scientists here in South Africa,” Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize tweeted.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday that it was aware of a new variant of Covid-19 had emerged in Britain, but there was no evidence showing the strain behaved differently to existing types of the virus.
South Africa has recorded the highest number of coronavirus infections on the African continent, approaching the 900,000 mark, with over 20,000 related deaths.