Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:
Russia Hits New Deaths Record
Russia reports its highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic, saying 808 people have died over the past 24 hours.
US Mandates Shots For Health Workers
The US health department says it will require all its public-facing health care workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, amid a surge in hospitalisations driven by the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Palestinians Receive Shots
The Palestinian Authority says it has taken delivery of 150,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, saying that of four million doses ordered from the pharmaceutical giant, one million have been received so far.
Tests For Toddlers
Israel is to require COVID tests from next week for children as young as three to enter schools, swimming pools, hotels or gyms as infections surge despite an extensive adult vaccination campaign.
China Port Shutdown
Authorities suspend operations at a terminal in the world's third busiest cargo port at Ningbo-Zhoushan after a worker is infected as China tries to squash its worst outbreak in months.
Helsinki Restrictions
Limits on public gatherings will be tightened in the Finnish capital as the country's infection rates hit a new daily high.
Coronavirus Toll (1000 GMT Thursday)
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 4,323,957 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1000 GMT on Thursday.
At least 204,685,500 cases of coronavirus have been registered. The vast majority have recovered, though some have continued to experience symptoms weeks or even months later.
The figures are based on daily reports provided by health authorities in each country. They exclude revisions made by other statistical organisations, which show that the number of deaths is much higher.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the pandemic's overall toll could be two to three times higher than official records, due to the excess mortality that is directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19.
A large number of the less severe or asymptomatic cases also remain undetected, despite intensified testing in many countries.
On Wednesday, 10,063 new deaths and 694,642 new cases were recorded worldwide.
Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were Indonesia with 1,466, followed by Brazil with 975 and Russia with 808.
The Us is the worst-affected country with 618,479 deaths from 36,190,390 cases.
After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 565,748 deaths from 20,245,085 cases, India with 429,669 deaths from 32,077,706 cases, Mexico with 246,203 deaths from 3,020,596 cases, and Peru with 197,146 deaths from 2,128,516 cases.
The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Peru with 598 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Hungary with 311, Bosnia-Herzegovina with 295, the Czech Republic with 284, Brazil with 266.
Latin America and the Caribbean overall has 1,398,578 deaths from 41,774,939 cases, Europe 1,216,930 deaths from 60,122,641 infections, and Asia 714,964 deaths from 46,810,425 cases.
The US and Canada reported 645,165 deaths from 37,634,563 cases, Africa 179,969 deaths from 7,121,257 cases, the Middle East 166,849 deaths from 11,125,580 cases, and Oceania 1,502 deaths from 96,103 cases.
As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day's tallies. – AFP