file photo / REUTERS
A World Health Organization-led coalition fighting the COVID-19 pandemic is asking government and private sector donors to help raise $31.3 billion in the next 12 months to develop and deliver tests, treatments and vaccines for the disease.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* More than 9.66 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus globally and 489,424 have died, a Reuters tally showed as of 1446 GMT on Friday.
EUROPE
* Families of elderly Spanish virus victims are initiating hundreds of compensation and criminal claims for nursing home residents who died often without hospital care in a legal morass that could affect the national political balance.
* Britain's official death toll from confirmed COVID-19 cases rose by 186 to 43,414, the Department of Health said on Friday. * Russia reported on Friday 6,800 new cases, the first daily rise below 7,000 since late April, taking its nationwide tally of infections to 620,794.
AMERICAS
* Argentine doctors are predicting that coronavirus cases will peak in coming weeks as the southern hemisphere winter sets in, straining hospital intensive care units after confirmed cases accelerated past 50,000.
* The governor of Texas temporarily halted the state's reopening on Thursday as infections and the number of people admitted to hospital surged.
* Mexico's health ministry on Thursday reported 6,104 new confirmed cases and 736 deaths. The finance ministry said it has initiated epidemiological contact tracing after Finance Minister Arturo Herrera tested positive for the virus.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Japan recorded on Friday more than 100 new infections for the first time since May 9, hitting its highest daily total since it eased a lockdown, Kyodo News reported.
* Australia will stick with plans to further ease coronavirus curbs, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, despite a spike in infections in Victoria state.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Nigeria's outbreak may push 5 million people into poverty as it triggers the worst recession in the African country since the 1980s, the World Bank said.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Astrazeneca's COVID-19 vaccine candidate is probably the world's leading candidate and most advanced in terms of development, the World Health Organization's chief scientist said.
* Vaxart Inc said it would test its experimental oral COVID-19 vaccine on monkeys infected with the coronavirus in a study funded by the Trump administration's vaccine-acceleration program called "Operation Warp Speed".
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
* Global equities were flat and perceived safe-haven assets like U.S. Treasuries and gold gained on Friday as investors weighed hopes that Europe will continue to rebound from the economic damage of the pandemic against concerns about a record number of new COVID-19 infections in the United States.
* International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday that the global economic crisis spurred by the coronavirus could ultimately test the Fund's $1 trillion in total resources, "but we're not there yet."
* The outlook for a global economic recovery over the past month has worsened or at best stayed about the same, according to a firm majority of economists in Reuters polls, with the ongoing recession expected to be deeper than predicted.
